Heruto
by Zaxbeez
Summary: All is going according to plan in the Land of the Wave. Of course, that solar eclipse could change everything... Experience what happens when the world of Naruto obtains abilities! The pairing isn't Yaoi, it's just the 2 main characters. NaruHina for real
1. Genesis

Heruto

Zaxbeez

Genesis

Naruto Uzumaki was infuriated. He stood in a dome of mirrors, fists clenched and shaking. Sasuke Uchiha lay dead at his feet, killed by their opponent. The masked boy, Haku, came out of the mirror he was hiding in.

"I'm sorry. He shouldn't have to die. But such is the way of a ninja. We are nothing but tools. And I broke him."

Naruto didn't even want to correct him, to help him, to change him. All he wanted… was that boy dead. "**Shut up.**" Was his voice different? He didn't care to think about it. "**I hate you. You. Will. Die.**"

Haku was truly sad he killed Naruto's friend. But the notion that he would die at the hands of this orange ninja was ridiculous. Haku had just kept them at bay, with barely any effort. He nearly laughed, but kept it in check. "I'm sorry Naruto. But you can't kill me. You couldn't even touch me in-"

"**YOU THINK I CARE??**" Red chakra was seeping out of him now, and power was radiating out of him. Haku took a step back; where did this come from…?

"**YOU KILLED HIM! HE WAS MY TEAM MATE! MY FRIEND! A PRECIOUS PERSON! AND YOU KILLED HIM! YOU. WILL. DIE. NOW!!!**"

Haku slid back into his mirror for protection, and felt safe for the moment. He pulled out some sebon (ninja throwing needles) and started to throw them at Naruto. They never hit.

Naruto, rage building, screamed out in anger, unleashing his chakra. The power was so immense that the sebon were flung back, and Haku's mirrors shattered. Haku himself was shot out of his safe haven, thrown some twenty feet, landing hard on the bridge.

"How did you-" Haku was cut off, as Naruto nearly instantly had a fist to Haku's mask, shattering it and throwing him into the bridge wall.

Naruto slowly walked to the bleeding and battered boy, red charka swirling around him. The mist obscuring Haku's view, coupled with his fleeting vision, made Naruto a dark figure in the middle of a maelstrom of menacing chakra. Had he been a lesser ninja, Haku would have passed out from fear.

Naruto lowered his clawed hands to Haku's shoulders slowly, resting them there for a second. Haku screamed out as Naruto clenched his hands, piercing Haku's muscle and bone. Naruto did this with such force, he was actually holding Haku's bones in his fists. Haku was raised up to his feet, screaming in agony. In reflex, his hands flew up to Naruto's arm in a feeble attempt to stop Naruto.

"**You're a dead man.**" The pure intent to kill scared Haku, making him clench onto Naruto's arms tighter. Naruto didn't even notice.

He released Haku with his left hand, making Haku drop his right arm in uselessness, pulling it across his own face, ready to back hand (PIMP SLAP) Haku's head off.

Haku knew he was about to die._Oh God… this is it._

Naruto snarled, tensed one more time, and then dropped Haku suddenly.

"What the hell was that??" Naruto asked after a scream of pain.

Haku was confused, then looked at Naruto's arm. It looked almost frozen. _Did… did I do that?_ He looked at his useless hands, bewildered. Can't _move… I'm a goner. I'm sorry Zabuza-sama…_ Haku tilted his head back, not wanting to look at the beast that was going to kill him. He noticed how the sky looked somehow darker than it did earlier. _Maybe it's the blood loss. Or the mist is thicker. Maybe a cloud moved in front of the-_

His thoughts were cut off, as Naruto's clawed hand just ripped through the boy's throat, sending his dead body a few feet through the air.

Naruto let out a roar, a victorious shout. He panted for a few moments, reveling in the feeling of the power he now had at his disposal. Then, as suddenly as it came, it was gone. Naruto felt the strength leave him, and he fell on his back, nearing unconsciousness. He was disgusted at the blood he was laying in, but wasn't in the mood to move. Was the sky darker than usual? Maybe it was just a cloud or something…

Kakashi Hatake had won. Zabuza was pinned to the spot by his ninja dogs, their jaws dug into his flesh. After the explosion of chakra he NEVER wanted to feel again, he walked over to check on his students. The mist was clearing, allowing him to see much more clearly. Sakura Haruno, a pink haired adolescent girl, was in relatively good condition having to only had to protect their client. She was currently crying over Sasuke, who was dead. Kakashi walked over and stood next to her. He rolled his eyes, _Of course she has no idea he's alive. I shouldn't expect them to LOOK at the body to see if he's breathing. I need to get her out of this fangirlism she's in._ "Sakura, he's alive. Stop crying over it."

He turned to walk towards Naruto, currently lying on the ground. He slightly flinched when he heard Sakura squeal over the Uchiha, who Kakashi assumed was waking up. "Oi, Naruto, what happened?"

Naruto lazily looked over to his sensei, then back to the sky. "I won." Kakashi looked over to the boy, who got tossed to the uncompleted edge of the bridge.

"I can see that. What was that chakra?" Kakashi wondered if Naruto knew exactly what he had done.

"Probably Kyuubi's. It felt so… evil. I don't want to use it again…"

"Good idea." Kakashi squatted next to Naruto. "You know though, you might have to eventually."

Naruto sighed. "I thought so. If I was stronger though, I wouldn't have to, right?"

"Maybe. I hope so."

"Kakashi-sensei, Haku said that ninjas are just tools… weapons to be used by someone. Is that true?"

"Partly. While we are tools, we shouldn't let that define us. I'm Kakashi first, then a tool. You're Naruto, then a tool. It's not always nice, but it's the way of the ninja."

"You know, I don't like that. I'm gonna change it. My nindo is that I'm my own person. I'll never go back on my word, and I will protect my precious people with my life. _That's_ my nindo. My ninja way."

"Well, I hope that works for you, Naruto. Come on, let's go get Sasuke and Sakura."

"Sasuke's alive!?" Naruto jumped up and ran over to his fallen friend.

Kakashi chuckled, _He'll get stronger. Much stronger._ The jonin stood up and walked over to Zabuza, ready to finish this. He stood in front of the missing-nin, kunai in hand. "Well Zabuza, are you ready to die?"

"No. But you're going to kill me anyway. So go ahead and do it."

A voice rang out across the bridge, "Well well! What do we have here? Did big, bad Zabuza get hurt?" A small, fat man was standing in front of numerous bandits, all with sinister looks on their faces.

Zabuza growled, "Gato."

Gato laughed a high laugh, failing to sound dark or intimidating. "Since you're almost dead anyway, you're fired! I wasn't going to pay you anyway. How stupid ARE you?" Gato walked over to where Haku was sprawled, "That reminds me, you little punk! You grabbed me and nearly broke my arm! I've been meaning to repay you for that!" Gato reared back his leg and kicked the dead body. "Huh. I only wish he was alive to feel It." Gato used his cane to poke Haku's face.

Zabuza looked at Kakashi, "Well well Kakashi, it would seem our fight is at an end. Since I am no longer in Gato's employ, Tazuna is safe. Let me go and I'll get out of your hair."

"Are you kidding me??" Naruto yelled, getting his second wind. "You're gonna let him do that to Haku??"

"Be quiet, you fool. Haku's dead, what does it matter?"

"What?! You mean you can just stand here and watch Haku get treated like a dog? You and Haku were together for years, doesn't that MEAN anything?"

"You don't understand the way of shinobi. I merely used him, just as Gato used me. Now, it's over. His usefulness is at an end. The loss of his strength and skill, yes, THAT means something to me. But the boy… nothing."

"If you mean that," Naruto growled, "you're an even bigger rat than I thought."

Kakashi grabbed Naruto's jumpsuit and tried to pull him back, "Okay, that's enough. Calm down Naruto, he's not the enemy; not right now."

Naruto broke from Kakashi's grip. "Shut up! Far as I'm concerned, he's enemy number one! Why you… you ungrateful… after everything he did for you… Haku LIVED for you! You were the most important thing in the world to him, and he meant nothing to you, nothing at all? While he was sacrificing EVERYTHING for you, you never felt anything for him? He threw his life away, and for what? For you and your dream! You never let him have a dream of his own, but he didn't care. And you just toss him aside, like he was nothing! A broken tool… Man that's so wrong! SO WRONG!"

"You talk too much." Zabuza said, head hung low. Naruto was about to yell at him some more, but noticed the tears falling to the ground. "Your words cut deep, kid. While he fought you, his heart was tearing itself apart. You see, Haku was always too soft and too kind; he felt pain and sorrow, and now curse him, I feel them too! Something else… I feel content that this is the way it ends. Kakashi, release me. I'm going to kill this son of a bitch." Zabuza started tearing away at the wrappings around his mouth with his pointed teeth.

Kakashi sighed. "After all that, I don't even get to win…" His ninja dogs poofed out of existence, freeing the legendary swordsman.

Zabuza looked like he was trying to reach his sword, but his arms seemed to not work. "Damn you Kakashi, you made my arms useless!"

Kakashi unzipped a pouch on his hip, pulled out a kunai, and tossed it to Zabuza, who caught it in his mouth. "There. Don't say I never did anything for you."

Zabuza let out a muffled, sarcastic "Thanks," and started charging towards Gato. He sliced his way through Gato's bandits, taking a few swords and spears to his chest and back, but kept charging on, running on adrenaline .He was running through the meat shields, yelling at Gato on the way. "You're going to hell Gato! And I'm going with you! You think they'll take your bribes there? You'll be tortured for eternity! But me," Zabuza chuckled, "I'll fit right in. I'll be the one torturing you, you bastard!"

He finally reached the fat man, who feared for his life. "DIE!" Zabuza sliced the kunai through Gato's throat, making the man tumble backwards into the ocean, falling off the incomplete bridge. Zabuza promptly fell to the ground, spears and blades sticking out of his back.

The bandits looked back at where their dead boss fell. Finally, one yelled, "There's only 4 of 'em! Let's kill 'em!" The rest agreed, and started to charge to the tired team of ninja. Suddenly, an arrow flew and hit one of them.

"You won't take our town! Run away! **NOW**!" A boy, Inari, yelled. He was wearing a cooking pot on his head, leading the rest of the villagers against the bandits.

Naruto turned to face him, "Good job Inari! You're a hero! Now, let's see what we can do about these bandits…" Naruto molded his chakra into his hands, which were forming the cross seal. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Fifteen clones of Naruto poofed into existence, all ready to charge and attack the bandits. "Let's go!" The Narutos charged, followed by the villagers.

The bandits realized how out matched they were, and ran back to their ship, trying desperately to get away from these people. A few were foolish, and decided to try to attack the strange orange-clad ninja. One grabbed a Naruto clone by the arm, and Naruto was reminded of the feeling Haku gave him, when he was about to kill him. The shocked feeling of something unexpected happening; Naruto felt it again.

The bandit looked on, horrified, as his arm was being frozen solid. "What the hell are you doing to me?? Sto-" But the bandit couldn't talk anymore. His entire body was frozen solid. Naruto ripped his arm away from the man's grip, shattering him. Kakashi took note of this, and decided to ask Naruto about it later. The clone looked around, confused, and shrugged. It simply got back to chasing the other bandits away.

A few made it, but most jumped off the bridge, fleeing at any cost.

The villagers cheered and were glad to have protected their homes.

Kakashi walked over to where Zabuza lie. "I guess it's over."

"Yeah… Kakashi, I have a request." Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Take me to him."

"All right, Zabuza." Kakashi pulled all of the blades of Zabuza's back, and then carried him over to Haku's body. As was walking to where Haku's body lay, snow began to fall.

"Snow? At this season?" One of the villagers was heard saying.

_Haku, are you crying?_ Kakashi set Zabuza down next to Haku. "Thanks, Kakashi." With that, Kakashi walked back to where Naruto stood. Zabuza turned his head to look at Haku, "We've been together all this time, so I'll die next to you. If possible… I want to go to the same place you're going to…"

And so Zabuza Momochi died.

Naruto was crying, "Haku was born in a place with a lot of snow…"


	2. Discoveries

The next few days were quiet, no more sudden ninja attacks. Team 7 just hung around Tazuna after they buried Zabuza and Haku. With Gato no longer around to threaten the villagers, Tazuna had more help working on the bridge, quickening its completion. Tazuna told them it would be a few more days until the "Super Tazuna Bridge" was complete.

"Are you really going to name it that, Grandpa?" Inari asked one day while working on the bridge.

"I might. You got a better idea?"

"How about naming it "The Great Naruto Bridge"? He IS the one who got me to rally the villagers to protect this place."

Tazuna scratched his chin, "Good idea. Don't tell the kid that though, we don't want him to get a big head." He chuckled at the thought.

Kakashi was having a nice time reading his Icha Icha Paradise book, when Naruto walked up to him. "Kakashi-sensei… I just wanted to thank you for protecting my clone in the fight. You really didn't have to do that. It was just a clone."

Without even looking up from his book, Kakashi said, "I didn't do that Naruto. I can't use ice."

"What?? But then who…?" _Haku…?_

"It wasn't Haku, Naruto." Kakashi said, anticipating Naruto's thoughts. He was definitely dead. I think your clone did that."

"That's not possible, Dattebayo! I don't know how to do Ice jutsu!"

"I was watching your clone, Naruto. It wasn't a jutsu. Maybe you have some sort of Kekkei Genkai?"

"I don't know! But ice? That's not very common in Konoha, is it?"

" No. Hmmm… maybe Haku somehow transferred his bloodline into you? I've never heard of anything like that, but who knows?"

Naruto sat cross-legged on the wall of the bridge, next to Kakashi. "Hmmm… Haku did the same thing to me, before I… you know. He didn't freeze me solid like I did to that bandit, but my arm DID feel like it got cold really fast. It kind of burned, dattebayo."

_Maybe the Kyuubi has something to do with it…?_ Kakashi thought, while absent-mindedly turning a page in his book.

"Well, I'm going to go check up on Tazuna. This bridge should be done by tomorrow."

Naruto nodded, not really paying attention. _Maybe Kyuubi did it! If I could just talk to the damn fox…_

Naruto was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't notice Sasuke come up and lean on the wall beside him.

"Dobe." Sasuke said.

Naruto didn't respond.

"Dobe!" Sasuke said, a bit louder.

"Hn? What do you want, Teme? I'm busy."

"I just wanted to say…" Sasuke grumbled under his breath.

"Hm? Whatdya say?"

"Thanks for killing that guy." Sasuke said, spitting out the words.

"Heh. No problem Teme! It was my pleasure!"

"You just saved me the trouble of doing it myself. I have to say though, you took way to long."

Nafruto stood up and angrily faced Sasuke, who didn't even flinch. "What'd you say bastard?? If I remember right, you were almost DEAD when I killed that guy!"

"Hn. I was faking so you could feel important."

"Bastard! Let's go! Right now! We'll see which of us is better!"

"I don't like to waste my time, Dobe. Maybe when you can hold your own against Sakura, I'll beat you into the dust."

Sasuke started walking away, smirking at Naruto's numerous obscenities directed towards him. His smile got progressively angrier as his thoughts progressed. _How was he able to beat Haku when I wasn't! I'm 10 times stronger than the Dobe! I'm an Uchiha! I should be able to take down ANYONE!_ Sasuke headed for the woods, Naruto's loud voice dying out in the background.

The trees around Sasuke were dented and singed from his constant hitting and kicking and fire jutsus. He stood in a small clearing, panting. He growled and ran at another tree, punching it. _HOW is the Dobe catching up with me_?? He spun and used the momentum to kick the same tree. _I'm an UCHIHA! I should be leaps and bounds ahead of him!_ He jumped and kicked off the tree, forming hand signs for a justu. "_Fire Style: Phionex Flower Jutsu_!" Sasuke yelled in his mind, spitting out five small fireballs at the tree. He landed and sprinted towards the smoldering tree. _I_ Sasuke punched again, _should_ punch _be_ punch _STRONGER!_ Sasuke punched again, and when he made contact, red sparks flew out from his fist, leaving a small fist-shaped dent in the tree, scorch marks jutting from it.

"What the…?" Sasuke looked at his hands, red lightning jumping between his fingers. It tingled. "What is this? Chakra? No… something… different." Sasuke tilted his hands until they were making a loose ball. The lighting was jumping from finger to finger, eventually making a ball in between his hands. Sasuke quickly pulled his hands apart, watching the ball of lighting dissipate.

_Ok… try that again_. He pulled his hands together again, _Come on… lighting… lightning… lightning!_ A small spark jumped from one hand to the other. _There! Okay, again. Lighting… Lightning! Focus the lightning to your hands! NOW!_ A ball of lightning jumped to life in his hands. _Yes! Now…_ He carefully took his hands to the tree. Sasuke pulled his hands farther apart, and pushed the lightning into the tree.

After a loud bang, Sasuke stared at the tree. Well… what was left of it. The ball of lightning made a crater in the tree, about a foot in diameter. _Woah. I like this new… whatever it is. Let's try this again…_

Sakura was bored. Her eye candy/ love-of-her-life was off somewhere, and all the only one she knew near here was her teacher who was reading his stupid book and the most annoying person she had ever met; Naruto. She sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. The only thing to do was watch unattractive men hauling concrete and steel, finishing the stupid bridge. _I wish Sasuke-kun was here... we could have lunch together._ The longer she thought about it, the better the picture became in her mind. _We'd sit next to each on the bridge, and he'd look at me sweetly and start feeding me. I'd blush, and then return the favor. Sasuke-kun…_

Sakura saw Naruto start to walk over to her, and her fantasy was ruined. _You're so annoying Naruto! I want to think about Sasuke-kun, not YOU!_

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, loudly. "I was just coming over to check on you, datteybayo!"

A small vein in Sakura's large forehead bulged, "I'm fine, Naruto, now GO AWAY."

"But Sakura-chan…"

Sakura stood up and took a swing at Naruto's face. She missed horribly, however, and hit the concrete, scraping her knuckles. "Bakana! Look at what you made me do!" She held up her fist to show him the bloody mess.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan! I didn't mean to! I'll kiss it and make it better, datteybayo!"

Sakura's eye twitched, and she punched Naruto in the face with her other fist. "Eh, so I'll see you back at the house, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, his nose now bloody.

Satisfied with herself getting Naruto to go away, she went back to her fantasy. _I'd get a bit of food on my chin, and Sasuke-kun would brush it off my lips and then lean in and…_ She was distracted by a tingling feeling on her hand. She looked at it wide-eyed as her skin knitted itself back together, leaving the blood behind. _What in the world…?_ Sakura used a finger to wipe a bit of the blood off, revealing perfectly smooth skin. It didn't even look like her hand was damaged, ever.

_What's wrong with me?_

Sasuke dragged his feet in through the door to Tazuna's house, utterly spent. His hands had a burn mark or two on them, from where he lost control of his "Akarai" (Red Lightning). If anyone stumbled across the clearing he was training in, though, they would wonder who hated trees THAT much. Sasuke smirked at the thought. At the table were Kakashi and Sakura. _The woman and old man must have gone to sleep already. How late was I out?_

As he sat down at the table to eat, he tensed in the inevitable loudness of Sakura trying to woo him. Luckily, it never came. He heard Sakura ask Kakashi something about medical jutsus, and figured she was too wrapped up in that to notice him. It didn't interest him, so he tuned it out and focused on eating his food. He briefly wondered where the dobe was, but remembered he really didn't care. _If he shows up, I'm sure he'll be noticed._ Sasuke quickly ate his food and headed up to the room that was being provided for him, Kakashi and Naruto. He was half way up the stairs when Kakashi called up to him.

"Sasuke, try to be quite. Naruto's already asleep and I'd hate for him to wake up yelling at you."

Sasuke grunted in response and continued his trek up the stairs, flinching at Saukra yelling "Good night Sasuke-kun!" up at him.

"Shut up Sakura." Sasuke said, now at the top of the stairs. "You're more annoying than Naruto."

And with that, he went to his room. Naruto was already snoring loudly, and Sasuke was resisting the urge to shock the dobe. _No, that'd just wake him up and make him louder._

Sasuke collapsed on his roll, falling asleep nearly instantaneously. He only managed one thought before sleep captured him: _Why is it so cold in here?_

"So Kakashi-sensei, I have a question." Sakura asked her teacher, who currently had his nose buried in his perverted book.

"Yes, Sakura?"

Sakura pouted. _He could at least pretend to pay attention to me._ "What would make a wound heal in a few seconds?"

"A medical jutsu of some kind." He answered, turning a page. "Why do you ask?"

Sakura wondered how she would say this. _I'll just say I was thinking about studying it. I don't want Kakashi-sensei to think I'm a freak._

**You realize that by doing that, you're hindering yourself, right? Sasuke-kun will never notice you if you don't get stronger.**

Oh, who asked you?

**Just show him.**

Sakura was so focused on her inner battle she didn't even notice Sasuke walk in and eat his late dinner, an amazing feat.

She was broken out of her daze by Kakashi telling Sasuke to be quiet.

_Saskue-kun?_ She looked to the stairs, and Sasuke was almost to the top. "Good night, Sasuke-kun!" She had hoped at least he would say good night; maybe even sweet dreams.

But no, he said "Shut up Sakura. You're more annoying than Naruto."

Sakura was dejected. _More annoying... than Naruto...?_ It felt like a giant boulder was crushing her.

_Damn. Now I'm going to have to fix her._ Kakashi thought, sadly closing his book. "Sakura, what was that about medical jutsus?"

She didn't look up. It seemed like she didn't even notice she had been talked to. Kakashi sighed and stood up to go to bed, leaving the girl to work it out herself.

"Kakashi-sensei." She said in a hollow voice, "I punched concrete and scratched up my knuckles pretty bad. When I looked at them ten seconds later, they were fine. I don't know how, but I'm healing very fast. Watch." She closed her eyes and pulled out a kunai.

Kakashi looked alarmed, "Sakura, don't be hasty."

Sakura shushed him. "Just watch."

Kakashi sighed, and sat back down.

Sakura flinched as she cut her thumb slightly, then watched as a bead of blood appeared. She wiped the blood away and showed Kakashi her thumb.

It didn't have a scratch. "Sakura… how did you do that?"

"How should I know? It just… happened. "

"Sakura… this is amazing. When we get back to the village, we need to talk to Hokage-sama about this, ok?

"Fine." Sakura said in the same hollow voice, "I just hope I'm not some sort of freak for this."

Kakashi looked at her sympathetically, "We'll work on it when we get back to the village. For now, I need sleep. And you do too. So, off you go now."

"Alright. Thank you sensei." She kept staring into space, even as she walked to her room.

_Finally she's gone… now, how did Naruto freeze that guy? He said Haku almost did it to him… Could Haku have really been alive?_ He shot down the idea. That boy was almost decapitated. No way was he alive. _ The only thing I can think of is that the Kyuubi somehow copied what Haku could do when its chakra was influencing Naruto. That doesn't make sense though, because that would mean Kyuubi was helping Naruto excessively. Maybe he is, but I can never know that._ Kakashi sighed. _This is, as Shikaku says, "Troublesome."_

Naruto was woken by Kakashi saying his name at 7 am. His response was a groan. "Five more minutes sensei! I kept dreaming about Haku. I feel like I just fell asleep, datteybayo."

"Then five more minutes won't make a difference, will it? Get up. Sasuke's already down stairs eating breakfast." Kakashi said, sparking Naruto's competitive nature.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly. "Uhh, I wasn't going back to sleep! I was awake half an hour ago, datteybayo!" Naruto hurriedly pulled his jumpsuit on, and rushed downstairs.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. _Mention Sasuke and he's there._

After a relatively quiet breakfast, due to Sakura still being crushed by Sasuke's words, Team 7 head out for home. The villagers saw them off as they crossed the bridge, and Tazuna and Inari discussed the name of the bridge. "Grandpa, can we name it now?"

"Sure. The kid's gone now." Tazuna said. "I hereby name you The Super Naruto Bridge!"

"Grandpa… The _Super _ Naruto Bridge?"

"What? I like it." Tazuna said. "But, if it'll make you happy, we'll name it The Great Naruto Bridge." He looked down at Inari, "Better?"

"Much."

A few workers started etching the name into the arch that was over the bridge.

"Yeah, that'll be a super name. Super names make for a super bridge."

Team 7 was about an hour away from Konoha. They had walked in silence, except for Naruto… being Naruto.

"Are we almost there? I can't wait to get back! First thing I'm gonna do is go get some decent ramen, datteybayo!" Naruto yelled, to no one in particular.

"You've been saying that for the past four hours, Dobe! No one cares!" Sasuke yelled, fed up with the annoying blonde. "I take back what I said Sakura, you're _much_ less annoying than him."

"Really?!? You think so Sasuke-kun??" Sakura said, relieved to have that off her shoulders. _Yes! I'm less annoying than Naruto! Score one for Sakura!_

_**All right! Sasuke-kun will be mine yet!**_

Sasuke sighed. _I liked her more when she was depressed…_

Sakura's mood brightened considerably after that. She had a constant smile on her face, and would occasionally pump her fist into the air.

Kakashi sighed at his team's antics. _I've got an annoying, immature, unbelievably powerful kid, a girl who heals from I don't even know yet, who's pretty much just a cheerleader, who's in love with a guy who wants nothing to do with her, and a prodigy who hates everyone he works with._ He looked to the sky and sighed, yet again. _Why me?_

By some miracle, half an hour later, Naruto stopped yelling at Sasuke and shut up, looking like he was deep in thought about something. He picked up a small pebble and seemed intent on doing… something with it.

Come on, freeze. Freeze! Freeze you stupid rock! I don't get it… I can freeze an entire human being, but not a tiny pebble. This is so stupid, datteybayo!

Sasuke was deep in thought about different ways he could use his Akarai. _I could charge as much as I could muster into my fist… yeah, that'd be good. Itachi, I __**will**__ get stronger, and I __**will **__ defeat you and avenge my clan. _

Sakura was… well… you don't want to know Sakura's thoughts right now.

When they finally got to the gates of Konoha, Kakahsi got their attention, "Ok guys, training tomorrow at seven, sharp. See you then!" He smiled, did a little wave, and poofed away.

Sakura was the one who spoke up, "So, I guess I'll see you guys at ten, when he gets there."

Both boys mumbled an agreement.


	3. Revelations

Revelations

Sakura walked through the doorway to her home announced her being back to her parents. She unpacked and went down to mingle with her parents. After being gone for a few weeks, they cooked her a special dinner and bugged her about mission details. She told them everything they needed to know. They didn't need to know her teammate went crazy and killed a guy. After she was done being interrogated, she went upstairs to her room and was surprised to see Kakashi in her window, reading his book.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?" She asked, throwing herself onto her bed.

"Well, I couldn't exactly give you special treatment in front of Sasuke and Naruto, could I? They'd bug me until I told them what I did with you."

"Oh. So, are we going to see Hokage-sama?"

"Yup. See you there." And with that, Kakashi poofed out of Sakura's bedroom, leaving the pink haired girl to glare at the now empty window.

_Of course he can't just walk, no. He's got to show off. _ Sakura started towards the Hokage tower, wishing evil things on her sensei all the way.

She arrived at the Hokage's office to find Kakashi squatting in an open window to the Hokage's left. _Does he ever just sit in a chair?_ Sakura sat down in front of the Hokage's desk, which she noticed was piled high with paperwork.

"So, Miss Haruno, Kakashi tells me you have an… ability, shall we call it?" The old man said, smoking his pipe.

"Yes Hokage-sama."

"Would you mind if I saw it for myself, Sakura?"

"All right, Hokage-sama. Um, do you have anything sharp I could use?" She asked, already bracing herself for the sharp sting.

"A Kage always has something sharp handy, Miss Haruno." Sarutobi said, tossing her a kunai.

Sakura was caught off guard by the tossed knife, not a good thing for a ninja. She blocked it with her arms, cutting her left one. She winced in pain, and pulled the kunai out. "Gah!" She yelled in pain, and flung the knife to the floor. "See?"Her arm stitched itself together as she held up her arm to the Hokage, "My wounds heal without so much as a scratch."

"That is strange. What do you think of this, Kakashi?"

"I think that it is an invaluable tool for a ninja. However, we need to test this… ability… to see what she can and can't heal."

"There's no need for that." Said a male voice to Sakura's left. He was mostly encased in shadows, giving him an air of mystery. "She can't die."

Sarutobi looked taken aback, and Kakashi's eye widened. "How do you know that?" The Hokage asked.

"Because, where I'm from, there was a girl that could do it as well. A cheerleader, Claire Bennet."

"Where exactly are you from…" Kakashi trailed off, silently probing for the man's name.

The man stepped forward into the light. His short black hair was slicked back, and his thick eyebrows loomed over his dark brown eyes. He was wearing a strange black shirt, one that buttoned up and had long sleeves. He wore similarly colored pants and shoes. "Please," he said, "call me Sylar."

__

"Oi, Naruto, the Hokage wants to see Team 7. Now." Kakashi said, waking the blonde kid.

"Ugh. Kakashi-sensei, I just went to sleep, datteybayo! Can't I talk to the old man tomorrow?" Naruto said, burying his face in his pillow.

"Alright, but that means Sakura and Sasuke will know something that you don't."

"Fine, sensei. I'll be there in a minute." Naruto got out of bed slowly, waiting for Kakashi to leave.

"Nice try Naruto. I'm going with you. Hurry up, we don't want to be late." Kakashi said, pulling out his book.

Five minutes later, they were walking out the door, Naruto with cup ramen in hand. "So sensei," He said in between bites, "what's the old man want?"

"Patience, Naruto. You'll find out when you get there." He flipped a page in his book, "Of course, if we didn't have to wait on water to boil, we could already be there."

"You expected me to eat _cold_ ramen?"

Kakashi sighed, "I expect you to not eat when there's an urgent meeting with one of the most powerful ninja in the world."

The rest of the short trip was in near silence, only Naruto's slurping being the only sound in the cool night. He cried out once in pain, the hot water scaling his mouth. Naruto burst through the door to find Sakura and Sasuke already there, dressed in their ninja gear. Naruto realized he probably shouldn't have shown up in his pajamas.

"Glad you could join us, Naruto." Sarutobi said from behind his desk.

"Can we just make this quick old man? I want to go back to sleep, datteybayo." This earned a punch from Sakura.

"Bakana! He's the Hokage! Talk with more respect!" Naruto just cowered and begged for Sakura to forgive him.

Kakashi once again sighed at their actions.

Sarutobi cleared his throat, stopping them and getting them to stand at attention. "This meeting is pertaining to your teammate, Sakura Haruno. She seems to have developed a unique ability. Kakashi mentioned something about Naruto doing something abnormal," _Well, abnormal for Naruto_ "and since two thirds of Team 7 are going through… changes, I assembled all of you. Sasuke Uchiha, have you noticed anything strange recently?" The Hokage looked at the boy in question.

_Did Sakura get Akarai too?? No! If_ _SHE_ _can get it, Itachi can too!_ "Hokage-sama, is it so wise to show each other our… abilities?" Sasuke asked, not willing to reveal his secret yet.

"So you admit you have ability, then?" Sarutobi asked, trapping the last Uchiha.

…_Damn it._ "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"What the hell??? Why does SASUKE get something special?? He's already special enough!" Naruto protested loudly.

"Naruto!" The Hokage said in a firm tone, "Not now!" Naruto bit back his retort, and crossed his arms dramatically. "Now, Sasuke, would you please show us this ability of yours?"

"Hokage-sama, could Sakura show us hers, instead?" Sasuke wasn't willing to part with his secret yet.

"Of course Sasuke-kun! I'd love-" Sakura started, quite fangirlisticly.

"No, Sasuke. I've seen her ability, as has Kakashi. This demonstration isn't for you; it's for Kakashi and me."

Sasuke suppressed a glare at the old man. "Fine. This is my _Akarai_." He held up one hand and let lightning jump from finger to finger. "I discovered it when I hit a tree after our fight with Zabuza and Haku." He quickly stopped the flow and lowered his hand, not too happy about letting them observe his special strength.

"Interesting." Sarutobi said, touching the tips of his fingers together. He turned his attention to Naruto, "Do you have anything strange happening to you, Naruto?"

"Nothing I can use consistently."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, "Explain please."

Naruto explained about freezing the bandit and how he tried on the trip back to freeze a pebble. "I couldn't think of anything that would let me freeze a person, but not a rock. I think it's stupid, datteybayo."

"Odd. Sakura, you may tell them what you can do now."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." She turned towards Sasuke, "I… can heal from any wound." She demonstrated this point by picking up the kunai that had been thrown at her earlier and cutting her hand with it, spewing blood. A few seconds later, the wound healed seamlessly, leaving only a blood smeared hand.

Naruto quickly ran up and grabbed her hand, obnoxiously searching it for something. Sakura's rage started to build, and moments later, Naruto got an amazingly hard punch to the face, sending Naruto sprawling and probably breaking his nose. "Get away from me Naruto! You're so annoying!" She only gawked at the sight before her, as did everyone else.

"What?" Naruto said. He didn't notice his face starting to heal, but winced when a loud crack told everyone his nose had re-set itself. "Ah! What the hell??"

"Naruto… you can do what I can do…?" Sakura said, marveling at him.

"But… I couldn't do it a while ago… I burned myself on ramen, datteybayo." As he spoke, he could feel his light burn fading.

"What's going on?" Kakashi was as confused as everyone else. Well, almost everyone.

"I believe I know what's going on." A voice said from behind Sarutobi.

"Sylar, what is Naruto's… ability?"

"I believe Naruto can absorb whomever's ability he touches."

"Who the hell is this, old man?" Naruto said, not happy at the idea of someone knowing something about him he himself didn't.

"This," The Hokage gestured towards Sylar, "Is Sylar. He's an expert on abilities, and arrived a few days ago."

"How does he know so much about things that only just emerged?" Kakashi asked.

"Where I'm from, these abilities had been around for years. I was a connoisseur of sorts with them. Trust me; I'm very familiar with them."

"What ability did you have?" Sasuke demanded.

Sylar was staring into space now, as if remembering fond times. "I had the ability to understand exactly how things work. For example, I understand that your power," he gestured towards Sasuke, "isn't control over lightning."

"What!? What is it then??" Sasuke was angry at this man who knew so much about him he didn't know.

"It's a supercharger. You boost other people's powers. Although, if you shocked the pink girl," Sakura 'hmph'ed at her nickname, "nothing would happen. You can't supercharge something like that. But if you shocked someone who could read minds, it would temporarily increase the range in which he could read minds, possibly extending the reach to an entire city."

"Amazing. Sasuke, your ability would be of great value to the village."

"Hn." _How can I become strong when I'm busy making others stronger??_

"Well I believe this is enough for one day. Team Seven, you are dismissed." Sarutobi said. _ I need to speak with Sylar and Kakashi alone about this. _

"See you later old man!" Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walked out the front door of the Hokage Tower together. "Bye Sakura-chan! See you tomorrow, datteybayo!"

Sakura rolled her eyes and turned towards Sasuke, "Good night Sasuke-kun! See you tomorrow!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and just walked away. _Idiots…_

Naruto collapsed onto his bed, thankful he hadn't needed to change clothes. He was asleep seconds after he hit his pillow. The young ninja didn't even notice the pale eyes hovering outside his window.

Naruto was awoken by the sun glaring at his face. He grunted into his pillow. "Damn Kakashi-sensei. Making us set our alarms this early when he won't be there for hours…"

After realizing what woke him up, Naruto bolted through his morning routine, gulping down a glass of milk and skipping his ramen, much to his dismay. He arrived at Training Ground 7 at 9:58 am and let out a sigh of relief when he didn't see Kakashi.

"Narutoooo!" Sakura's voice pierced the air.

"Sakura-chan! I didn't mean to be late, honest! Datteybayo!" Naruto clenched his eyes shut in anticipation of pain. Instead, he got a pat on the head.

"Good job, Naruto! You actually did something right!"

Naruto looked at her confusedly. "…What?"

"You left me alone with Sasuke for two hours!" Naruto looked over to Sasuke, who looked like he wanted Naruto dead.

Before Naruto could respond, Kakashi showed up. He had Sylar behind him.

"Good morning team! The chunin exams are in a week, so I asked Hokage-sama if we could borrow Sylar-san."

"Um sensei, how would that help us?" Sakua asked timidly.

"Sylar-san is the most experienced person with these new abilities you have. He could tell you how to use yours most effectively."

"For example, you, the black haired one," Sylar said, referring to Sasuke, "can turn your ability into an attack force, as you've seen. You can also shoot your "Akarai" at a target from a distance."

"So that means Sasuke will train his Akarai over there, "Kakashi poked his thumb behind his back , "by those trees." Sasuke grunted in acknowledgement, and started to walk over by the trees.

"How can I train my ability, Sylar-san?" asked Saukra.

"You? You can't. Your power doesn't develop. It's just there." Sylar seemed condescending to Kakashi, but he didn't say anything.

"Sakura, you're going to do exercises with me. Your physical stamina… is pretty nonexistent."

Sakura looked dejected, "Hai sensei."

"Hey, hey, what about me? What do I do??" Naruto was shaking with excitement.

"You, come with me. I'm going to show you how your power works." Sylar turned and walked towards the memorial stone, not looking back to see if Naruto followed.

Naruto looked at Kakashi, who nodded. "All right!" Naruto bolted after Sylar, pestering him with questions.

"Shut up. Now," Sylar leaned against the middle of three wooden posts sticking out of the ground, "your power makes you like a sponge. You soak up all the powers of people around you. To access these powers, you have to think about how that person made you feel. Now, I'm going to cut you, then, you're going to think about pinky over there and how she makes you feel. If you succeed, you heal. Got it?"

Naruto nodded his head vigorously, and held out his arm. "Gotchya. You've got to cut me deep, though, because I heal pretty quickly on my own."

"I'll keep that in mind." Sylar grabbed Naruto's arm and pointed his finger in it. Naruto cringed in pain as his blood suddenly oozed out of a cut that suddenly appeared on his arm.

"How did-"

"Think about her, not this. Go." Sylar said, letting go of Naruto's arm.

Naruto nodded and thought about Sakura, closing his eyes in concentration. The way she looked, the way she walked; everything about her. He opened his eyes expectedly, and noticed his wound was still there, albeit a fraction smaller. "Sylar-sensei, it didn't work."

"So it would seem. You did something wrong. What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about Sakura-chan, of course! That's what you told me to do, datteybayo."

"Specifically, what did you think about?"

"The way Sakura-chan walked, how she looked, her eyes… that kind of stuff."

"God you're stupid. I said how she made you _FEEL_, not her."

Naruto "ahh"ed in understanding. He closed his eyes again, thinking about how Sakura made him feel. _She makes me feel warm and accepted._ Naruto's mind flashed to the incident earlier that morning. _Sometimes she kind of scares me, though. It hurts when she begs for Sasuke and doesn't want anything to do with me._ Naruto's thoughts were interrupted as Syalr's voice broke through.

"You're doing something wrong. You're not activating her power. Come with me."

Naruto's eyes snapped open and Sylar was already on the move. "Naruto, wasn't it? I need to see your power in action. Then I can understand it."

"Is that your power? Understanding how things work?" Naruto asked. He didn't get a response, however, as Sylar walked up to Sasuke and told him something.

"What?? Why would I want to help the dobe?" Sasuke snarled.

"You will because I told you to, and I'll cut your arm off if you don't."

"You can try!" Sasuke jumped back and pulled out a kunai, sharingan flaring. He was stopped in midair, however, by an invisible force. His head jerked as if he was trying to break free, but nothing else moved. The sleeves on his shirt started to tear away, and he screamed as his shoulder started to be cut in a straight line. Somewhere in the background, Sakura was screaming.

Kakashi held a kunai to Sylar's throat in an instant. "Let my student go, or I'll cut off your head."

Sylar smirked. "Relax Kakashi; I wouldn't really cut off his arm. I was just proving a point."

Sasuke fell to the ground, clutching his arm and glaring at Sylar.

"Sylar, never again are you to do that to any of our allies. Understood?"

"No promises, Kakashi." Sylar smirked. "I need this kid" he jerked his finger at Sasuke, "to charge Naruto so I can understand his power."

Kakashi eyed Sylar suspiciously, and then told Sasuke to do it. "Fine Kakashi, but you owe be for this." Sasuke stood up, as his bleeding had slowed a little. He walked over to Naruto and charged his hand to the point where red lightning was crackling along his hand. He pushed Naruto forcefully, and Naruto stumbled back. "There. Can I go now?" Sylar's gaze was glued to Naruto, so Kakashi nodded. "Good." So Sasuke walked back to his trees.

Naruto was trembling slightly. "Now, think about the girl. Hurry, before it wears off." Sylar said, sounding excited.

Naruto nodded slowly, and closed his eyes. Sylar watched as his wound healed, albeit slowly. "Good job kid. You healed- "Sylar trailed off, as the grass around Naruto's feet was frozen solid. In an increasing radius, everything was slowly frozen. "Naruto, stop." The radius kept increasing, however, so Sylar held out his hand and pushed Naruto, breaking his concentration.

Naruto seemed terrified and out of breath. Sweat was beading across his forehead. He looked around confusedly, and told Sylar thank you.

"Why?"

Naruto looked around to make sure Sasuke and Sakura were out of earshot. "I was talking to something every big and very evil. It was… terrifying."

"Is that how the person who gave you freezing made you feel?"

Naruto thought about that. Haku did scare him when he was about to die, but he really enjoyed his company when they were picking herbs together. "Yeah, I guess so." Naruto shrugged.

"Good. Come with me." Sylar started back towards the memorial stone, again not looking to see if Naruto would follow.

Naruto stood up shakily, and trotted after Sylar. "So what do I do now?"

"Now? You practice some more. Try to freeze this pebble." Sylar tossed a small rock over to Naruto, who caught it.

"All right, I can do this!" Naruto squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. He was interrupted by a loud explosion, however, in Sasuke's general direction. Naruto opened his eyes and looked over to see Sasuke laid out flat, and a large charred spot on the ground. He barely contained his laughter.

"Hey, focus on the rock, not him." Sylar reprimanded.

"Right. Rock. Freeze it. Gotchya." Naruto's determination showed in his eyes before he shut them again. He did exactly as he did before, thinking about the fear that Haku made him experience. He opened his eyes expectedly, dejected when he saw the not frozen rock. "Damn it! I did the same thing as I did earlier! Why isn't it working??" Naruto screamed at the rock.

_What's wrong with this kid? He just froze a ten foot radius solid, but he can't use this power? I don't remember Peter ever having this problem… Unless…_ Sylar had a sudden epiphany. "Naruto, look at me."

Naruto opened his eyes to find Sylar staring expectedly at him. He freaked out a bit, however, and put up his arms in defense. "Why are you that close to me??"

Sylar didn't answer, and grabbed Naruto's wrist. "Naruto, think about me; about how I make you feel."

"Could you let go of me first? You're kind of creepy."

He did.

"Okay, here I go." Naruto closed his eyes again, thinking about how Sylar made him feel. _Kind of uncomfortable, a little freaked out, but sort of good for training me._ "What now?"

Sylar unstrapped something from his wrist and held it out to Naruto. "A watch? Why would that help me?" Naruto asked, slightly put off from his break in training.

"Try and fix it."

"I don't know a thing about watches!"

"If you wanna learn how to access my ability - FIX... the watch. Listen to it. Like a symphony, every piece has its part, all coming together in perfect harmony. If you can understand the complexities of a watch, you can understand anything - everything. Cause, effect... action, reaction..." Sylar trailed off, hoping Naruto would get the point.

"Fine, but I don't see how this helps." Naruto held the watch up to his ear, listening and trying to understand how it works. Something suddenly clicked in Naruto's head. That piece seems like it's hitting that one… so if I bend it just a bit, it should work… "I know how to fix it." Naruto said, astonished. "You just have to move-" he popped off the face of the watch and pointed at a piece, "that piece just a little and all the pieces flow together." The pieces floated out of the watch and spread out in front of Naruto.

"Good job. Now, put it together."

For the next ten minutes, Naruto tapped and poked the pieces into place, marveling at this understanding he possessed on something he had never studied. Finally, the pieces clicked together and as a unit, fell into the case of the watch, and the face after it. The second hand gave a jolt, and then started ticking.

"I'm sorry." Sylar said, sounding sad.

"Ne, for what? You showed me how to do this stuff! I can even understand why ramen tastes so good!" Naruto exclaimed, astounded at this newfound ability.

"Nothing, just focus here with me. Your power isn't as strong as I thought."

"What do you mean my power isn't strong?? I'm gonna be Hokage! My power's got to be strong, datteybayo!" Naruto was suddenly angry with this guy. Who was he to say Naruto wasn't strong??

"Calm down kid. I never said your power wasn't strong. It's just not as strong as I thought."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought your power was the same as an…. acquaintance of mine was. It kind of is, actually. Peter's power made him like a sponge. He soaked up everyone's ability around him, and could access them anytime he wanted. You, on the other hand, can only use one power at a time."

"Oh… but I used Haku's ability earlier!" Naruto protested.

Sylar looked at Naruto like he was an idiot. "You mean after he SUPERCHARGED your ability? Wow. Didn't notice that."

Naruto stuck his hand behind his head. Then he looked at Sylar accursedly. "Why didn't I understand that since I have your ability?"

"You need to think about what you want to understand. God you're stupid."

Naruto laughed nervously. "So what now?"

"Now, you know how to use any ability you come across. You might not be able to use their ability so well, but you can use it." Sylar stood up from his spot on the memorial stone. "I think that's enough for today."

"But that only took an hour!"

"Don't worry, I've got something for you later, too."

"But can't we do that now?"

"No. I don't have the right… materials for that." And so Sylar started walking back to the village.

"Ok then! See you tomorrow Sylar-sensei!" _Maybe I'll go see what's up with Sasuke…_

Sasuke was having a bad day. First, the dobe didn't show up so he had to listen to Sakura rant about something for nearly two hours. Then he gets told to work on his AIM. He was an UCHIHA. Their aim was always perfect. Well, that's what he thought. Then he tried shooting his Akarai.

_Damn it!_ Sasuke screamed in his head. So far, he was failing to hit his target. _Anytime I put too much into the attack, it arcs off somewhere I don't want it to go. Anytime I put less into the attack, the Akarai hardly makes it halfway to the target._ Sasuke was just too frustrated at the moment. When that Sylar guy came over, and had the audacity to tell him to supercharge the damn dobe, he snapped.

"What?? Why would I want to help the dobe?" Sasuke yelled at Sylar.

""You will because I told you to, and I'll cut your arm off if you don't."

"You can try!" Sasuke jumped back and activated his Sharingan, only to be caught in midair by some invisible force. He tried jerking around, but could only move his head. _What is this?_ Sasuke froze as he heard a rip. He jerked his head to his left and his eyes widened as his skin was sliced by an invisible knife and let out a scream in pain. Sakura screamed something in the background, and then the pain suddenly stopped. Sasuke opened his eyes and saw Kakashi with a kunai to Sylar's throat. _Damn bastard deserves it. _ Sasuke was suddenly dropped and Kakashi told him to do as Sylar said. "Fine. But you owe me, Kakashi."

Sasuke walked over and powered his Akarai to his hand. He pushed Naruto a bit harder than was needed, but it did the job. He abruptly turned and went back to his trees. Naruto could burn for all he cared.

Sasuke was just about ready to explode. He didn't care anymore. He pushed as much Akarai as he could into his hand and just let it go. He found himself partially deaf and flown back a few feet. _How is this supposed to work??_

Sasuke slowly went through the hand seals for his _Great Fireball Jutsu_. He inhaled deeply, and infused his breath with chakra. He breathed out, the fire curling up for a moment and then blasting its way to his target tree. For some reason, the explosion calmed him. He sat down and watched his Akarai arc around his fingers. _Why won't you work…?_ He curled his hand into a fist and pushed more Akarai into it. Sasuke slowly dispersed the lightning until it withered away to nothing.

"Want some help?" Naruto's voice was behind Sasuke.

"No." Sasuke didn't even look at Naruto as he stood up and took his stance for another round of target practice.

Naruto seemed to ignore him and walked to his side, about five feet away. Sasuke ignored him in turn and charged up his Akarai. "Ha!" Sasuke yelled in concentration, trying to blast the tree in front of him.

The lightning had different plans, however, and arced downward into the ground. Sasuke let out a low growl in frustration. "Oh I get it!" Naruto said, turning towards Sasuke. He smirked, "Too bad you don't want my help."

Sasuke grunted and turned to Naruto. "What could a Dobe know about my ability?"

"I'll give you a hint. Use chakra." Naruto turned to walk away and Sasuke leapt and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Kakashi was suddenly by their side, "Naruto, why don't you get Sasuke's ability and practice with him? You two seemed to do much better when you were against each other."

"Hn. Like the dobe could figure this out."

If anything would get Naruto riled up, it was being underestimated. Or having his precious people threatened. Or having his ramen taken away. "Oh yeah?" Naruto spun and slapped Sasuke's wrist away. "Watch me Teme!"

Naruto took a bit of a wider stance than Sasuke did, and drew his hands to his side. The Akarai was crackling in a ball between Naruto's hands. Naruto thrust his hands forward and the Akarai blast from his hands and formed a small cylinder of pure lightning that made it about three quarters of the way to the tree. "Beat THAT Teme!"

Kakashi's one visible eye widened slightly. _Well, that didn't work as well as I had hoped… _ Kakashi had planned on Naruto struggling to catch up with Sasuke and then finally mastering it at the same time as Sasuke, as had happened with the Tree Climbing exercise. _Oh well, back to Sakura_. Kakashi pulled out his book and lazily walked back to where Sakura was trying to run back and forth between two points.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "How the HELL did you do that on your first try??"

"Sylar-sensei's ability is to understand how things work. When I absorbed his, I wondered how your ability could get to the tree. Something just… _clicked_ in my head. If you'd use some chakra to direct it, the power behind it would be more concentrated and your aim would be much better." Naruto took his stance again, pulling his hands to his side.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, and took his stance again. He hoped Naruto wouldn't notice it was a bit wider than before. He tried to get his chakra to form a long cylinder, the width of his fist. Sasuke activated his Sharingan, pleased to see his chakra had taken the desired shape. _ Let's see the Dobe beat me now… _ Sasuke charged his Akarai the let it explode down the funnel of chakra. While the result was better than what he had been doing, the lightning broke the funnel of chakra about fifteen feet away from the tree. Sasuke looked shocked. _I get it now… The chakra has to be thick enough so the Akarai doesn't break it…_ Sasuke reformed his chakra cylinder around his fist and was sure to put some more into it. As he started to charge up his attack, he took a glance over to Naruto.

Naruto had a chakra tube as well, though his was much larger; it was about a foot in diameter.

Both boys released their attacks at the same time. Sasuke glanced over to Naruto's to see how it did. Sasuke's attack died out after Naruto's did, but Naruto's was had more power to it. _Is his stronger than mine or not??_

And so the race began.


	4. Training

Training

The days leading up to the chunin exams were extremely repetitive. Naruto and Sasuke would pair up and shoot their Akarai at their respective trees, and Sakura would go exercise with Kakashi.

Mostly, Sakura just sprinted back and forth between two points, and then would collapse from exhaustion. Fifteen minutes later, she was rested up and ready for endurance running. She realized she needed this, but damn if it didn't HURT. Her muscles always seemed like they were killing themselves over and over again.

She could already see the results, though. Sakura knew she could run easier now than before, and faster. That didn't mean she had to like Kakashi for it. Her healing powers gave her an extreme advantage over normal people, for her muscles repaired themselves rapidly. They still got sore, however. They killed her when she ran, but thankfully weren't sore for long.

"Kakashi-sensei, how much longer are we going to do this?" Sakura panted as she was running up a tree.

"Mah, not long Sakura. The Chunin exams are in a week, so I can't do this forever." Kakashi said, leaning against a tree and reading his little orange book.

Sakura grunted as she flipped off the tree and positioned herself to land in a way that would let her sprint back up the tree. She miscalculated, however, and snapped her leg.

Kakashi rushed to her side. Her shin was piercing her skin and blood coated the white bone. Sakura muffled her scream of pain. She tried to push the bone back into place, not enjoying the feeling of touching her own bone. Kakashi winced at his student. _How can she stand that pain?_

"Sakura," Kakashi started, "a few weeks ago you passed out without getting touched. Now you're pushing your bones back into your body. Wasn't that painful?"

"Yes sensei." Sakura said, rising to her feet to repeat her process. "Ever since I've gotten this ability, pain has been getting less and less intense. I know pushing my own bone back into place should be more painful than it is for me, but it's muffled." She grunted and sprinted back up the tree, apparently tired of talking to Kakashi.

_She's changed… I hope it's for the better. _ Kakashi sighed and flipped open his book yet again.

Naruto was frustrated at his Akakrai. He had opted for a big tube of chakra, to stuff more Akarai in. If he put too much Akarai in a thick shell, the shell broke and the lightning fell apart. If the shell was too thin with less Akarai, and the same effect occurred. However, if there wasn't enough Akarai in a thick shell, the shell collapsed on itself, snuffing out the lightning. It was like trying to balance a scale with a scale on each plate.

He could see his training was paying off, at least. The tube took longer and longer to collapse or explode, but the tree was relatively untouched. If his attack reached the tree, it just barely singed the bark, instead of breaking the tree in half, as Naruto had hoped it would.

Sasuke had tried to make his Akarai fit in a narrow tube, basing the width off of his index and middle fingers. Sasuke figured if the Akarai was more concentrated, it had a better chance of piercing the tree. So far, he had no luck. He needed better control over his chakra. The shape of his cylinder kept fluctuating when he fired his off, randomly growing and shrinking, making his attack vary in power. It was like he needed something wrapped around it to focus the power…

"Naruto," A voice behind them said. "Come with me. We're going to practice some more."

"But Sylar-sensei!" Naruto complained, "I need to work on this attack! Sasuke-teme can't beat me at this!"

Sylar looked at Sasuke performing the attack and then told Naruto to do the same. He scoffed, "This kid," he pointed at Sasuke, "is much further from completing his attack than you are."

Naruto pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! Take that Sasuke-teme!"

Sasuke glared at Sylar and got back to mastering his technique, his efforts redoubled.

Sylar drug Naruto back to the three posts, where a girl with dark blue, chin length hair and white eyes was standing, almost hiding, behind a log.

"Hinata? Why are you here?"

(Note: I'm not good with stuttering people. Just imagine her voice mumbled and quiet)

"Ano… Sylar-san told me to c-come here. He didn't tell me why…" As she said this, her body shrunk behind the log farther, making her even harder to understand.

"I brought her here to let you learn how to touch one person, and not absorb their ability. Right now you're in a state where the natural thing to do is soak up everything you touch. We want you to get to a point where you don't absorb anything unless you want to. Before you ask a stupid question, it's useful if you have a good ability and don't want to lose it."

Naruto shut his mouth at that, as he had planned to ask that very question. "Okay. So, how do we start?"

"You're going to absorb this girl's power. While you're using it, you'll touch me, and if you absorb my power, then we try again. Got it?"

Naruto nodded, eager to advance himself.

_Naruto-kun... is going to touch me?_ Hinata felt her face get warmer and redder at the thought. It didn't help that Naruto noticed.

"Hey, Hinata, are you alright? It looks like you have a fever, datteybayo!"

Hinata could feel herself losing consciousness as Naruto's hand got closer to her to check her temperature.

"Naruto, stop that." Sylar said, clearly annoyed. "Hinata, let Naruto touch your hand."

Hinata shakily nodded and held out her hand, which Naruto quickly grabbed. She had to suppress a "Meep" and very nearly fainted. "Wow Hinata, you have really soft hands."

And down went Hinata.

Naruto wasn't fast enough to catch her, and she hit the ground. "Hinata? What's wrong? Are you ok? Snap out of it!"

_He must have lost my ability. Good. _"Now, think about Hinata."

"But she passed out! She could be hurt!" Naruto yelled, panicking about what to do.

"Ignore that. She's fine. Focus, Naruto." Sylar said, his words condescending.

_Hinata passed out! She's hurt! Oh man, she freaks me out every time she does this! I just… am I floating?_ And indeed he was.

"What? Is this what Hinata's power is? Floating?" Naruto asked, slowly spinning in mid-air circles.

"What else would it be, you idiot? How else would you explain suddenly being off the ground? The ability is flying, by the way."

"Uh…" Naruto looked at Sylar, and then quickly changed the subject. "Is Hinata doing any better?"

Sylar glanced over at the girl on the ground. "Yes."

A few seconds after that, Hinata started to wake up, and remembered where she was. _Naruto-kun... touched me. _Remembering made her face red again. Naruto was suddenly beside her, hovering slightly off the ground.

"Hinata, are you ok? You passed out again! Do we need to take you to the hospital?"

Hinata stuttered out a "no."

"All right then… if you say so." Naruto turned back to Sylar. "So what now?"

"Now," Sylar started, "you hover a little, just enough so we know you have her power. Then you're going to touch me, but not take my power. Clear?"

"Got it." Naruto gave a short nod. "But, um, how exactly do I do that?"

"Just focus on trying to stay off the ground. It should start to come naturally soon."

"Okay! Let's go!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air, and then sweat dropped. "Neh, Hinata… how do I move?"

Sylar wanted to cut the kid's head open. _Such an idiot…_

Hinata blushed, looked at the ground and started tapping her fingers together. "Naruto-kun… umm… you just kind of…" Naruto floated closer, to hear her better. This made her face red yet again. She raised her face to meet him inches away. _Nartuo… kun…._

"Neh Hinata, are you-" Naruto was pushed away by an invisible force and flipped through the air, eventually stabilizing several yards away. "Hey! What the hell was that??"

Sylar's lips curled into a small smile. "There. You can move now." _If that girl had fainted again, I it would have been annoying_. "Now, come over here and try to keep her ability."

Naruto dropped to the ground and bolted back to Sylar and Hinata.

"Activate her power." Naruto nodded and closed his eyes. He rose a few inches off the ground. "Now, touch my hand." Naruto opened his eyes and reached out his own hand to touch Sylar's. He promptly fell to the ground.

"Damn it!" He yelled, and turned to Hinata. "Hinata, would you mind if I got your ability again?"

Hinata nodded and held out her hand, still red.

Naruto reached out his hand and thought, "_Why does she always turn red and faint around me… It's really weird, datteybayo." _Naruto's eyes widened as he touched Hinata's hand. _"No way." _

Naruto stood stunned for a moment until Sylar snapped him out of it. "This time, try flying up-side down. That way you're more motivated to not bash in your skull."

"Huh? Oh, right." Naruto snapped out of his trance and started to hover. _She can't. No way! Maybe it was a slip up in Sylar-sensei's ability. There's NO WAY she likes me. _He continued these thoughts and flipped himself. He didn't even notice the blood going to his head. _How could she? She never said anything. Hinata Hyuuga does NOT like me like that. _He touched Sylar's hand and Hinata cringed, expecting him to fall. When nothing happened, she gave a small smile.

"Good job, Naruto. Hinata, was it? You can go now, if you want. I'm going to leave." Sylar turned and left the two alone. Naruto was still floating, up-side down.

_ Maybe I misunderstood. _He thought, _Sure she's cute and all, maybe as cute as Sakura-chan, but she was told to hate me just like everyone else. Maybe I can figure out what it is if I hang around her a little. _"Neh, Hinata, can you show me how to fly better? If I need your power later, I'd like to use it as good as I can."

Hinata was caught off guard by that. _Naruto-kun… wants me to teach him…_ She got slightly redder at that. "Sh-sh-sure Naruto-kun. H-how should w-we do it?" Hinata stuttered out.

Naruto flipped and landed cross-legged on the ground, his head on his fist, deep in thought. He looked up quickly and yelled, "I know! You could fly around and I could try to catch you!"

"L-like tag, Naruto-kun?"

"Is that what it's called? Okay then! Go!" Naruto waited a second until Hinata understood and flew off, then another few seconds to take off after her.

Naruto, being over-enthusiastic, shot far ahead of Hinata without any control, and flew smack into a tree. "Owww…."

Hinata flew next to him, worried. "A-are you ok, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, relatively loudly.

"Yeah… I'm fine Hinata-chan. Thanks." _Well, she cares if I'm hurt or not. That could mean she's just nice._ "Let's try that again. I'll go slower this time."

Hinata nodded, blushed, and took off once again. Naruto jumped off of the tree limb, and caught himself in mid-air. He shakily rose through the sky and eventually got to where he could stay still and stand on air. Hinata was staying in one spot until he started slowly going after her. She drifted backwards just as slowly as he advanced. He grinned and went as fast as he could toward her. She simply flew up higher, letting him pass her into some trees. He threw on the brakes as hard as he could, and narrowly avoided the painful wood.

_Gotta go slower… but fast enough to catch her._ Naruto took off again, a little slower, and trailed after Hinata. They flew above the trees, Naruto growing more and more comfortable with each passing minute. _She is fun to be around. Maybe… it's not so crazy to like Hinata-chan. Datteybayo! _

Hinata was as happy as she'd ever been. _I'm helping Nartuo-kun train!_ _M-maybe I'm not such a failure…_ Hinata heard Naruto call for her to slow down, so she stopped flying and hovered still.

"Wow Hinata-chan! You're great at this!" Hinata blushed at the compliment. Naruto's thoughts again drifted to the thought that she may like him. _No, Hinata's just modest. It doesn't mean she likes me. _"So, Hinata, how high up can you fly?"

Hinata turned slightly redder, "Um, I've flown p-pretty high. I had to s-stop though, because it gets c-cold too high up."

"Wanna take me up? I'd like to know my limits with this power if I ever have to use it again." Naruto asked.

Hinata nodded shyly. "Of c-course, Naruto-kun."

"Great! Race ya!" And with that, Naruto took off towards the sky, going as fast as he could. He started off so fast, he created a vacuum where we used to be, collecting water droplets and making a soft "boom." Naruto Uzumaki had just broken the sound barrier.

"N-Naruto-kun! Wait!" Hinata yelled, flying as fast as she could after him. "If you go too high you can't breathe!" Hinata franticly followed the orange dot that was Naruto. _Please, let him be okay…_

Naruto was laughing giddily. The wind was flowing through his hair, and his jacket was flapping wildly. He shut his eyes and thought; _this feels like… pure freedom. No evil stares, no mean villagers, … no nothing. Just me… and Hinata-chan. _He was starting to like that idea. He was reflecting on his thoughts heavily; too heavily. He didn't notice his light headedness. His eyes were shut, so he didn't notice his spotty vision. Before he realized what was happening, Naruto had passed out.

His upward motion carried him a few hundred feet further, until gravity caught up with him. Naruto started to fall back down towards the ground.

--

Hinata saw Naruto stop flying up and hoped he had realized there was no air this high up. Hinata had taken a deep breath before chasing after Naruto, knowing the dangers. She stopped and watched Naruto slowly start to fly back towards her. She smiled, glad he was okay. As he came closer to her, Hinata was ready to explain the dangers of flying too high, hopefully without fainting.

When he shot passed her, she figured he was being his over-enthusiastic self. Then she realized he was facing up. And his eyes were closed.

Hinata gasped and activated her Byakugan. His chakra was out of balance, and she immediately knew he was unconscious. _No! Naruto-kun!_ Hinata sped after him, flying as fast as she could. _Please, let me catch him!_

Hinata was growing closer each moment, but so was the ground. She gave an extra burst of speed she didn't know she had in her and grabbed his arm, slowing down little by little. _Oh thank God…_

Naruto weighed a lot more than she thought he did. And he was slipping.

They were still about four hundred feet off the ground, and a fall from this height would kill him. Hinata frantically dropped as far as she could before his hand slipped from her grasp. Hinata tried to catch him at a different angle, but it was too late. He was going to hit the ground, and it was going to kill him.

"Naruto-kun!!" Hinata screamed, flying at top speed to catch him.

--

When Naruto hit the ground after free-falling for two hundred feet, everyone noticed. Kakashi and Sakura hurried over to see what had happened. Even Sasuke was walking towards them.

"Naruto??" Sakura asked no one in particular. "What happened Hinata?"

Hinata had arrived moments after Naruto crashed, and was on her knees crying next to Naruto's badly broken body. "H-he passed out w-while we were f-flying." Hinata said through her tears.

"We need to get him to a hospital." Kakashi hurriedly picked up Naruto's mess of a body and started to jump off when Sasuke spoke up.

"The dobe's alive, isn't he? I heard Sylar tell him he absorbs anyone's ability unless he's trying not to. I don't think he's trying right now."

Kakashi understood and told Sakura to touch him. All eyes were trained on Sakura's hand to Naruto's. After a small shimmer of light, Naruto's skin started mending, but his bones still protruded his skin.

"W-why isn't he h-healing?" Hinata asked, a little less frantic now.

"His bones have to be put back in manually." Sakura said, hoping she didn't get picked for the disgusting task.

"Hn. Maybe not. Let's see if anything happens…" Sasuke shot a ball of Akarai at Naruto that dispersed throughout his body and after a moment the bones began to retract into his body. Sasuke smirked, "Tell Sylar he was wrong." Sasuke walked back to his training spot, not wanting to be a part of the scene.

Naruto's eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the light for a moment. "What just happened?"

Hinata was holding back tears, Sakura looked horribly pale, and… did Kakashi look a little less nonchalant than usual? He couldn't tell. They both sighed a sigh of relief and walked back to Sakura's training.

Hinata spoke softly "I-I couldn't c-catch you when you f-fell Naruto-k-kun. I'm s-sorry."

Naruto gave a wide smile, "But I'm okay now, Hinata-chan! We'll just train some more and next time I fall you can catch me no sweat, datteybayo!"

Hinata gave Naruto a puzzled look. "E-even though I a-almost killed y-you, you s-still want to t-train with me?"

"Of course, Hinata! Who wouldn't want to train with you? Besides Sasuke-teme. He doesn't count."

Hinata gave a small smile and burst into tears again.

"No, Hinata-chan! I didn't mean to say anything to make you upset!" Naruto jumped up and rushed over to her side, his arm around her.

"N-Naruto-kun… I'm not s-sad. I'm crying because I-I'm so happy."

"You can do that? But that's so weird, datteybayo."

Hinata turned to face Naruto and realized their faces were inches apart yet again.

_Don't faint, don't faint, don't faint._ Hinata fervently thought. Naruto's hand gave an almost unnoticeable squeeze to her shoulder, but Hinata noticed. _Is he… hugging me?_

Hinata's head landed between Naruto's shoulder and chin, making him smile. _Well, at least I know she likes me now. _He looked down at her dark blue hair. _Well, better get out of this position before she passes out again. _He laid her on the ground face up and took her ability.

When Hinata came-to, Naruto was floating around, throwing shuriken at targets on trees. "N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto turned around quickly and shot over to Hinata. "Hinata! Are you ok? You freaked me out there for a second, datteybayo!"

"I-I'm fine, Naruto-kun. Thank you for asking." Hinata blushed, and stood up.

"So, Hinata, do you want to fly some more?"

"I-I wish I could, Naruto-kun… b-but my team has training as well today. S-sorry." Hinata looked down ashamedly.

"Eh, it's ok. Want to fly around later today? After team training?"

"I-I wish I could, Naruto-kun, but father expects me to be home so I can train with him." _And be called a failure over and over…_

"Maybe when we both have time then, datteybayo! I'll see you around Hinata-chan!" Naruto landed and ran over to Sasuke to absorb his ability and train more.

_Hinata… chan?_ Hinata was light headed all the way back to Team 8's training ground.

--

"What do you want, dobe?" After Sasuke had charged Naruto, he went back to his routine of training. His control had gotten strong enough so he could consistently reach the tree, but something was still missing. The power behind it was never consistent, and the chakra tube would have a bump in it where the Akarai was most concentrated. He knew he needed to make the tube more rigid, but didn't know how.

"I just came over to train my Akarai, teme."

"You mean MY Akarai?" Sasuke was frustrated at his own incompetence at training and Naruto was the perfect target to take it out on. "Why can't you just get your own attack to work on instead of taking everyone else's!?" (I didn't intend for this to be the epitome of irony for a Sharingan user to say, but it fits, no?)

Naruto looked at him confusedly. "What's your problem, Sasuke-teme?? If you want me to stop training in your Akarai, then fine! But if you're in trouble and I could have saved you using this attack, don't blame me!" Naruto stormed off towards Kakashi and Sakura, leaving Sasuke to seethe in peace.

_Damn bastard! I hope he never understands how to perfect that stupid attack! _"Kakashi-sensei, is there anything I can do to train some more? Sasuke-teme won't let me borrow his stupid Akarai, datteybayo!"

Kakashi sighed. "And why would he not let you?"

Naruto kept yelling, "How should I know?? He's just being a big baby about me getting a better ability!"

"Sorry Naruto, but I'm busy with Sakura. Maybe later?"

Naruto seethed with anger. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN LATER? YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!"

"Mah, Naruto, just ask nicely if you can use Sasuke's Akarai." Kakashi flipped a page in his book.

Naruto was shaking with anger. He shot into the air, leaving an indention in the ground a few feet across. He flew up high, and let out an angry scream. He crossed his fingers in the appropriate seal and yelled, just as loud as before, "**Tajū: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**"

Hundreds of Narutos came into existence, creating a large shadow below. All of the Narutos immediately started to beat each other. Naruto flew directly into a few, making them disperse. They were all throwing punches at each other, throwing shuriken and kunai, anything to make the others disappear.

Tem minutes later, all that remained was the original Naruto and one other clone. Naruto yelled and flew his fist straight into the clone's face, dispersing it. Naruto was panting form exertion. "I feel better."


	5. An Invisible Thread

Hey everybody, I'm actually pretty impressed with the hits and visitors this story's been getting. It's great! Good motivation to keep writing too. I know the last chapter was kind of filler, and this one will be too. Since nothing MAJOR is different yet, it will still be pretty close to the Manga. But just a little. Next chapter I promise awesome fights and the revealing of more abilities. Enjoy!

An Invisible Thread

The Chunin exam was tomorrow, and Naruto had perfected flying. He could stop on a dime, now, and accelerate in an instant.

Sasuke still hadn't let him borrow his ability, and Kakashi still hadn't done anything about it. "If you want to borrow it, ask. You need to work this out by yourselves. Consider it teamwork training." was all Kakashi said about it.

The day before, after Kakashi had dismissed the team, Naruto asked Sakura something. "Hey, Sakura-chan… how do you tell if a girl like you?"

"I don't like you, Naruto. Leave me alone." Sakura said coldly.

"No no, not you, datteybayo! This is… someone else." Naruto blushed and looked away.

This caught Sakura's interest. Who would like Naruto? Besides Hinata, but that was so obvious even Naruto couldn't miss it. Then she realized it was Naruto; he would probably miss that. "Who do you think likes you?"

"I-it doesn't matter, Sakura-chan, datteybayo! Just tell me how to tell. Please?" Naruto was blushing and unusually soft spoken about this. It made Sakura feel weird.

"Well, sometimes, a girl is mean to try and show she doesn't like the person, when she really does." Naruto nodded, and was paying very close attention. "Do you notice if she is constantly fixing her hair or smoothing her clothes when she talks to you? Does she try to touch you or have an excuse to get you to touch her? If she doesn't, though, that doesn't mean she doesn't like you. Does she look at you a lot?" Sakura paused here to let Naruto answer.

"Ummm… I really haven't noticed yet, datteybayo. Should I look for it?"

"Yes. If you catch her looking at you, and she keeps on looking, she's confident and she may make the first move. If she looks away as soon as she sees you noticing her looking at you, she's shy and probably won't say anything about liking you unless you say it first." Sakura paused and took a breath. "Finally, smile at her. If she smiles back, she may either be being nice or she may like you. If she smiles a little and looks away, she probably likes you and may be wondering if you know she likes you. Didn't they teach you this in the Academy? The girls had a class where we learned to arrange flowers and flirt to blend in if we were on undercover missions."

"Well, we might have had that class. I probably skipped it or slept through it, datteybayo. Anyway, thanks Sakura-chan! See you tomorrow!" With that, Naruto ran off, probably to go to Ichiraku's Ramen Bar.

_Well, this should be interesting to watch._ Sakura thought. _I wonder what Sasuke-kun's up to..._

--

Sasuke realized what was missing in his attack. Something needed to wrap around his main beam of Akarai to stabilize it and add more attack power. The spiral around it would be pure chakra, hopefully acting like a screw instead of a nail and increasing the Akarai's drilling ability.

He charged up and fired off the attack and it drilled a hole about halfway through the tree.

Sasuke chuckled darkly in his head. Now all that was left was to cut down on the charge time. _Itachi… I'm getting stronger._

His inner victory was interrupted as a pink haired girl came over to him, squealing and fawning over him. "Sakura, go away. I'm busy." She lowered her head and walked off.

Sasuke didn't care where she went.

--

Naruto was busy stuffing his face with his third large serving of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet at Ichiraku's Ramen Bar. _Now, whose power should I have for the exam tomorrow? Flying is good, but I don't know what to expect, datteybayo. It could be indoors for all I know… So what does that leave? I could take Sakura-chan's healing, but I could be able to take that at any time. Same thing with Sasuke-teme's stupid power… like he would let me anyway. So that leaves… Sylar-sensei! His power would be GREAT in any exam! I could see exactly what I need to do! That's PERFECT, DATTEYBAYO! _

Naruto augmented his mental victory by pumping his fist in the air, catching the attention of Ayame as well as her father. "Oh? What's so exciting, Naruto-kun?" Ayame, the owner's daughter asked nicely.

"I just figured out the ultimate way to win the exams tomorrow! Datteybayo!" Ramen bits flew out of Naruto's mouth as he yelled.

"Well that's good! Father and I will be rooting for you, ok?"

"Thanks Ayame-chan!" Naruto finished off his final bowl and left the money on the counter. He quickly turned and left the stand, and bumped into a short, brown-haired academy student.

"Konohamaru? What're you doing here?"

"Boss! Udon and Moegi want to know if you'll play ninja with us, kore!"

"Konohamaru, I'm busy with the Chunin exams right now. Can't you ask later?"

"But Narutoooo! We wanna play now, kore!" Konohamaru whined.

Naruto sighed. "But I really need to do this Konohamaru…"

Sakura was wandering through town, and heard Naruto and Konohamaru arguing. "Aw, he's so cute Naruto! You should play. I'll help you." Sakura was looking for a way to burn time anyway. It could be fun.

"Eh, Naruto, is that your girlfriend?"

"Well… kind of-" Naruto got a punch to the face that sent him flying.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'D DATE A GUY LIKE HIM??" Sakura screamed at Konohamaru.

"No! Boss! Don't die!" Moegi and Udon crowded around Naruto as Konohamaru continued to yell at Sakura.

"You crazy witch!" Konohamaru yelled back. "How dare you do that to our boss! You're not pretty enough to date him anyway!"

Konohamaru was flown back in the same manner as Naruto, and muttered to his friends, "Geeze, with that big ugly forehead is she even a girl?"

Sakura had started to storm off, but heard what Konohamaru had said. She was now in a mad frenzy and Naruto and friends ran away from her. Konohamaru rounded a corner quickly and ran into a boy clothed in black with a wrapped up object on his back. Next to him was an older blonde girl with a huge folded fan on her back.

"That hurt you little punk!" The older boy picked up Konohamaru by the collar and threatened to beat him up. Sakura was apologizing to no one in particular and saying she was only messing around.

"Stop Kankuro. You're going to get in trouble later." She scolded.

"I just want to have a little fun before the boss shows up. I'll be fine."

"Hey, weirdo! Let him go!" Naruto yelled at the strange foreigner.

Kankuro smirked and dropped Konohamaru, who quickly ran behind Sakura along with Udon and Moegi for protection. Naruto charged at Kankuro, but Kankuro twitched his finger and Naruto tripped, sending him face first towards the ground.

Naruto caught himself with his flight, and adjusted so he was hovering a foot off the ground. The blonde girl looked at him, surprised. "You bastard!" Naruto was about to charge again, but a small rock flew and hit Kankuro in the head.

"What the hell was that?" Kankuro turned his head to the source to find The Last Uchiha sitting luxuriously in a tree.

"What are you doing in our village?" Sasuke asked, tossing another rock in his hand.

The blonde girl blushed, _He's pretty handsome._

Sakura squealed "Sasuke-kun!" with little hearts in her eyes.

Konohamaru, while impressed with Naruto's ability to at least hover off the ground, told him he was lame compared to Sasuke.

Naruto crouched beside Konohamaru and put a hand on his shoulder, "No no! I could beat that guy, easy! Datteybayo!" Konohamaru just looked away ashamed. _Damn it Sasuke! Why are you always making me look bad??"_

Kankuro was yelling at Sasuke to get his ass down there. "I hate show-offs like you the most!"

He took the thing off his back and the blonde girl asked him, alarmed, "You're going to use Karasu??"

Sasuke could feel a fight mounting, until a dark voice said from beside him, "Kankuro, stop it."

He immediately stopped, and put Karasu back on his back. "You're an embarrassment to our village." The dark voice continued, "Losing yourself in a fight like that… how pathetic."

Sasuke looked at him, shocked. _He's as stealthy as Kakashi… I need to keep an eye on him. _ The red-haired boy was using chakra to stick to the bottom of a tree limb, and apologized for his team mate's idiocy.

"H-he started it, though…" Kankuro's demeanor had changed completely. He was shaking in fear and sweating. His voice had gone from being arrogant to scared in a moment.

The red haired boy looked at him with careless, empty eyes. "Shut up or I'll kill you." The rock Sasuke had thrown at Kankuro rose menacingly as if to threaten him.

"A-alright. I'll stop now."

Sasuke had Body Flickered beside Sakura and asked, "Hey, you, what's your name?"

The blonde haired girl blushed and said, "Who me? I'm Temari."

"Not you; the one with the gourd."

The boy turned and looked at Sasuke, and the stone dropped to the ground. "Gaara of the Desert. I'm also interested in your name."

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha." The boys shared a stare down, which was interrupted by Naruto's yelling.

"Hey! What about me!? Huh?"

Gaara, in the same bored voice, said "No. I don't care." He started walking away and called after his team mates, "Let's go." The three flickered out of sight.

Naruto was crouched next to Konohamaru, "You don't think I'm weak, do you Kono?"

"Compared to Sasuke, yes." Konohamaru said quite coldly.

Naruto hung his head in shame.

--

Kakashi had given the three their forms separately, and told them that they didn't have to take the exam unless they wanted to. Of course Naruto didn't listen to the dangers of the exam, and Sasuke didn't care either. Sakura was who Kakashi was most interested in.

When he gave Sakura her application form, and told her about the dangers of the exam, he paid special attention to what she thought about it.

"Well, I might as well. Not like I can get hurt, anyway." She said with a sigh.

"Sakura, I'm very proud of you." Kakashi said, showing a rare moment of sincerity. "Even if you can't get hurt, this exam is grueling. You've grown up a lot. Keep up the good work." With that, Kakashi flickered away, leaving Sakura to beam in isolation.

--

"Sylar-sensei!" Naruto yelled, chasing after the man.

"What do you want? I'm not teaching you anything today." He said, uncaring.

"I'm not here for training this time; I was wondering if I could use your power for the exam tomorrow, datteybayo! It'd be the BEST power to have!"

"Is that all? Fine." Sylar stuck out his hand and Naruto touched it, watching the dull light that transferred from Sylar's hand to Naruto's. "Now, go away."

"Thanks Sylar-sensei! Hey, do you want to get some ramen with me? I know the BEST place to get it, datteybayo!"

"No. Now, go away."

"But-" Naruto was flung backwards when Sylar stuck out his hand at him. After he crashed, Naruto stood up excitedly and asked Sylar, "How do you DO that! It's SO cool, datteybayo!"

"It's another ability of mine. Telekinesis. It means I can move things with my mind."

"Awesome! Why don't I have it then, if I took your ability?"

"My guess would be that my Intuitive Aptitude is my first power, and it gets in the way of you absorbing my Telekinesis."

"Well that stinks. Having Tele-whatever sounds awesome, datteybayo!"

"It's cool, believe me. Where I come from, I used it a bunch of times."

"Oh? What was one way?" Naruto asked, interested in Sylar's past.

"My personal favorite was cutting open the heads of others and taking out their brains to take their abilities."

Naruto stood shocked. "You… you killed other people? Why? Was it self-defense… or were you ordered to…?"

"I just really liked killing. And it made me stronger, taking the abilities of others. You see, your ability is focused around your brain. So I took out other people's brains and understood how they worked. Then my brain changed around in order to use the abilities I just acquired."

"That's… a little sick, sensei."

"More than a little, Naruto." Sylar was staring into space now, a small smile on his lips. "There was a reason for it, though. With my ability comes a punishment; The Hunger. It makes you want to understand everything you see. Admittedly, I wanted to be special, so it didn't help that I had a little hunger of my own." Noticing Naruto was speechless, Sylar continued, "I sought out people with abilities, killed them, and took their powers. I was probably the second most powerful human in the world… besides Peter. But Peter was weak, cared about everybody, didn't want to hurt anyone. You remind me of him. You even have his ability."

"Does that mean I can be the strongest, like Peter?"

"Not really. Your ability is a weaker version of his. He just had to be around you, and he could use all of your abilities. No cutting, no touching, and he could use all of them at the same time. Maybe someday I could go back to where I came from, cut out his head, and give you his brain to look at."

"Uh… thanks but no thanks sensei. Wait… does that mean you still have The Hunger??"

"No, you idiot. If I still had it, you and everyone who has abilities would be dead by now. Something's off here. In my world, there wasn't any chakra, so that must be a factor. I think… chakra interferes with some abilities. Maybe that's why you have a weak version of Peter's power, and I don't have The Hunger. It's… somewhat peaceful here."

Naruto gave a chuckle. "Whenever you come eat ramen with me, I'll show you the most peaceful place in the village, datteybayo!"

Sylar gave a small smile. "Thank you, Naruto."

"Later Sylar-sensei! Thanks for letting me borrow your ability!" With that, Naruto ran off.

_He really is a lot like Peter._

--

The next day, Team 7 met outside the academy at 3:00 pm. When they got to the second floor, there was an awkward boy clad in a green jumpsuit with a bowl cut getting pushed back by two older genin.  
"You think you can take this exam when you're this weak?" one of them said to the group of genin that had clamored around the door. "We've failed this exam 4 times! We know all the tricks they could throw at us, and we STILL failed. This exam is more grueling than you know. We're just weeding out those that would fail anyway. What's wrong with that?"

"I agree, but," Sasuke said, an arrogant smirk on his lips, "you will let me pass through, and also remove the genjutsu you've put on the surroundings. I'm going to the third floor."

A murmur swept the crowd of genin. "Sakura, you must have noticed first, right?"

Sakura smiled softly and then smirked, "Of course, I noticed a while ago. This is the second floor."

Even Naruto threw in his two cents. "I noticed when we came up too, datteybayo."

One of the two genin smirked. "So you noticed. But all you did was see through it!" The kid went to throw a sweeping kick at Sasuke, and Sasuke reared up his own leg to counter.

The other boy who was getting thrown around before was suddenly between the two, and caught their legs easily. Sakura was already analyzing him.

_He's fast. He saw that they would attack each other and moved himself between them. He's completely different from that kid who was getting knocked around earlier. _

Another boy with white eyes and long brown hair spoke up, "What happened to the plan? I thought we were supposed to not draw attention to ourselves."

The green boy blushed, "Well…" he looked towards Sakura. The girl that was on his team shook her head disapprovingly.

He walked over to Sakura and said "Hi. My name is Rock Lee. So yours must be Sakura… We should go out together!" He said with a massive smile, tooth sparkle, and thumbs up. "I would protect you with my life!"

Sakura deadpanned at him and said, "No way. You look so lame."

Lee perked up at that, and said "Would you rather I looked like-"

"Lee! Don't show her that! Wait until the exams." His female team mate with her hair inn two buns scolded.

"But Ten-Ten! I must prove myself to the lovely Sakura-chan! The fountains of youth demand it!" Lee yelled exuberantly.

_So… weird…_ Sakura and Naruto thought collectively.

"Hey you…" the brown haired, white eyed boy said to Sasuke. "What's your name?"

"When you want a-" Sasuke started. He was cut off by the other boy.

"Person's name, you should give your own first? I thought you'd say that. You're a rookie, right? How old are you?"

Sasuke started to tell him, but was again interrupted. "You don't have to answer me, no." Sasuke was slightly shocked, but didn't let it show. _How did he know I was going to tell him that?_

Sasuke grunted and turned to walk away, expecting Naruto and Sakura to follow him. _Man, there's a bunch of monsters here._

Ten-ten blushed behind him and thought he was cute.

Sakura got excited and yelled after Sasuke and Naruto to hurry up and started pulling them by their arms.

Ten-ten asked Lee where he was going. "You and Neji go on ahead. There's something I'd like to test."

Lee followed Team 7 into a large hallway, and stood on the balcony. "Hey, you with the dark eyes,"

Sasuke looked at him and asked, "What is it?"

"Will you fight me right here?" Lee jumped off the balcony and landed in a squat. "My name is Rock Lee. When you want to learn more about a person, you give your name first, correct?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"I would like to test my skills against the offspring of a genius clan. Also…" Lee looked at Sakura and winked at her.

"Ah! Your hairstyle is lame, and your eyebrows are creepy…" Sakura complained.

"You are an angel!" Lee blew a kiss at her, which manifested itself in the shape of a heart. It drifted towards Sakura, and she comically dodged it by falling backwards. It hit the pillar behind her and made an audible "ping."

_Oh. So that's what it is._ Naruto thought with a grin. _Sasuke's screwed. _

Sasuke and Lee were exchanging touch dialogue, and eventually Sasuke charged Lee, who seemed to fade away as he sped to meet Sasuke himself. He threw a kick, and Sasuke knew he had to block instead of dodge. Sasuke threw up his arm, but was kicked anyway.

Naruto smirked. _Sasuke-teme deserves this._

_What the hell was that? Ninjutsu… or Genjutsu? Heh, fine. It gives me a chance to practice it, anyway. _Sasuke's eyes took on a red tint, and two tomoe spinning around his main pupil.

Sakura was fawning over how awesome Sasuke was, and he charged again. _If it's Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, I'll see right through it now!_

_There's no WAY Sasuke-kun can lose now! He's got the same advanced bloodline as Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke-kun just keeps getting stronger and stronger! The Uchiha Clan is great! _

Sasuke got closer to Lee, ready to see through his trickery. He was shocked when Lee's foot upper cut him in his jaw, and sent him flying away. "Yes, that is correct Sasuke Uchiha. My techniques are neither genjutsu nor ninjutsu." Lee crouched and seemed to disappear and re-appear underneath Sasuke. "Yes, my moves are simple taijutsu, Sasuke-kun. They say the Sharingan can reveal all types of nin, gen, and tai jutsu. Even if you see me move, but cannot react, then your Sharingan is useless. I believe there are two types of people among the strong in the world; the genius types and the hard workers." As Lee said this, the bandages around his hands started to unwrap. "With this technique, I will prove that hard work surpasses genius!"

Suddenly, a pinwheel flew and pinned Lee's bandage to the wall. Everyone's attention was directed to the source, a tortoise with a headband around his neck. "That's enough Lee!" The tourtoise bellowed.

Lee caught his bandages and flipped through the air, kneeling before the large tortoise. Sasuke kept sailing through the air, eventually landing painfully in Sakura's arms after she slid and caught him.

_I knew it. The bandages on his hands aren't for style. His hands are beaten and broken from training so much… way more than Sasuke-teme._ _He didn't have a chance._ Naruto smirked, and walked over to where his other two team mates lay.

Lee was getting yelled at about how "that technique was forbidden!!!" Lee was apologizing and saying he accepted his punishment.

The collective thought of Team Seven was _This is so weird…_

"Here comes Gai-sensei!" The turtle yelled. In a poof of smoke, someone who looked exactly like Lee was on the turtle's back.

There were a few differences, such as the jonin jacket and thicker eyebrows. "WOW! YOU GUYS ARE THE EPITOME OF YOUTH!" Gai-sensei said loudly, striking an odd pose as he did.

"He has even thicker eyebrows! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?!" Team 7 yelled collectively.

"Super thick…" Sasuke muttered.

"Super gay" said Sakura.

At this, Lee was enraged and yelled with fire in his eyes, "HEY!! STOP INSULTING GAI-SENSEI!"

"What do you expect?? All you freaks keep showing up! How are we supposed to react??" Naruto yelled at the boy with a shiny bowl cut.

"What did you-!!" Lee was cut off by Gai saying his name. "Oh!! Yes…"

"YOU FOOL!" Gai threw a punch at Lee and Team 7 gasped. Lee was flung a few feet out, and sat up with tears in his eyes. The two shared a few unintelligible phrases and finally embraced, quite oddly. "That's enough Lee! You need no say it!"

"Sensei!" Lee yelled, much too enthusiastically.

"It's all right Lee! Youth and mistakes go hand in hand!"

Lee was crying about how kind Gai-sensei was. "Well, Lee, for starting a fight and almost using a forbidden move, your punishment… will take place after the chunin exams."

Lee saluted and gave an enthusiastic "Yes!"

"500 LAPS AROUND THE PRACTICE RANGE!" Yelled Gai, followed by a "YES!!" by Lee. Gai looked over at the three kids looking onto the scene with a mixture of shock, confusion, and disgust. "You guys," he started, "how's Kakashi-sensei doing?"

Sasuke answered, "You know Kakashi?"

"Know him?" Gai smirked. He was standing by Lee, and then was suddenly gone. He reappeared behind the three, and finished, "People refer to us as 'Eternal Rivals!'"

_No way! This speed… is he even human??_ Sasuke thought, again shocked at the strength of others.

"50 wins, 49 losses; that's the record. I'm stronger than Kakashi." Gai said with a tooth flash and a thumbs up. "Sorry about Lee. I swear to this face (Good guy pose) it won't happen again."

Gai threw a kunai and knocked the pinwheel that held Lee's bandages down, setting them free. Lee began to re-wrap his hands, and Naruto got a glimpse of the battered appendages.

Lee jumped off and Gai-sensei disappeared. Sasuke was shaking with anger. "Oh well. Guess the Uchiha clan isn't so great these days." Naruto said, hands behind his head.

"Naruto!" Sakura berated.

"Next time… I'll beat him!" fumed Saskue.

"Yeah right! You just got your ass handed to you. You saw his hand too. He must've trained really hard, everyday; way more than you. That's all this is."

Sasuke's fist unclenched, "Sounds fun. This exam… just keeps getting better. Ready to go, Sakura, Naruto?"

Both gave resounding agreement and walked into the real room 301.

They never could have guessed what awaited them.


	6. The First Exam

Hey there everybody! Long time no see! Like I said, this chapter has 0 action and very little (if any) plot divergence from the manga. Sorry about that. Next chapter (Which will be posted at noon) is going to have a major plot point, and will cover the first half of the first exam. So, sorry again for the delay and for the lame chapter. Enjoy!

The First Exam

Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened. "W-wow."

There were so many genin, from all of the major villages. _They all look so strong._ Sakura thought.

"Sasuke-kun!! You're late!" A blonde girl had attacked Sasuke via hug from behind, and shortly after Sakura yelled at her, "GET AWAY FROM HIM INO-PIG!"

"Why if it isn't Sakura; giant forehead as always." Ino said, a condescending tone in her voice.

"Are you guys taking this exam too? Man, this sucks." A boy with his black hair in a spiky ponytail said, like it was too much effort to say it. Beside him was a large boy munching on some chips.

"Oh, the idiot trio! Hey!" Naruto said, out of habit more than anything else.

Ino ignored him and made a face at Sakura, "Sasuke-kun is mine!"

A loud boy with a dog on his head walked up and greeted them all. Beside him was Hinata and Shino, a boy in a trench coat that covered his body with a high collar that covered most of his face. He had dark sunglasses on.

Shikamaru, the lazy one, said "Geeze, you guys too?" quite lazily.

"Looks like the entire Rookie Nine are taking the exam this time. I wonder how far we'll get… eh Sasuke?"

"You sound confident, Kiba." Sasuke said, acting as cool as usual.

"We did a lot of training. We won't lose to the likes of you."

"Shut up, Kiba. Sasuke-teme might, but I won't lose to the likes of you." Naruto was surprisingly collected.

Hinata mumbled an apology for Kiba, but Naruto said, "Oh, it's fine Hinata. You don't need to apologize for him. He'll be eating his words later."

Kiba was just about to yell back, but an older boy with white hair and round glasses approached them. "Hey, you guys need to be quieter." He put a hand on his hip, "You guys are rookies, just out of the academy, right? This isn't a picnic."

Ino glared at him, "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm Kabuto. But instead of worrying about that, look behind you."

The Rookie Nine turned around and saw an angry team on Rain ninja glaring at them. "Those are ninja from the Hidden Rain. They have short tempers." Kabuto went on, "Everyone here is nervous about the exam. You should quiet down before you make unnecessary enemies."

"Kabuto-san," Sakura said, "is this your second time taking the exam? You seem to know a lot…"

"Nope. This is my seventh time. Since you're all rookies, I'll help you out a bit; with my ninja info cards." (A/N: I REALLY dislike author's notes, but it's difficult for me to write this scene without singing "Ninja info cards" in my head. Sorry if it seems low grade)

Sakura asked what ninja info cards were, and Kabuto responded, "They're basically cards which have info burned onto them with chakra. They look blank unless I use my chakra on them." He demonstrated by channeling chakra into the white card, and a map of the nations appeared. "This is the distribution of ninja from every nation. "

"Do you have information of specific people?" Sasuke asked, maintaining his cool aura.

"Oh? Are you worried about somebody? Of course I have information on individuals, though it's not perfect. I even have some stuff on you guys. Tell me something about them and I'll see what I've got."

"Gaara of the Hidden Sand and Rock Lee of the Leaf."

"Oh, you know their names? This should be easy then." Kabuto took 2 cards from his deck and laid them on the ground. "Ok, first is Rock Lee. He's a year older than you guys, 20 D-rank and 12 C-rank missions completed. His sensei is Maito Gai, and recently advanced greatly in taijutsu over the last year. This is his first time in the exam, and his team mates are Neji Hyuuga and Ten-ten. Next up is Gaara. Weird, he's never done a D rank mission… but he's done 8 C-ranks and a B-rank as a genin! Since he's a foreigner, I don't have much info. It seems he returned from all of his missions without a scratch, however."

"So, then, is e-everyone here like t-them?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Yup! Everyone here are the elite genins of their village. This isn't going to be easy."

Naruto started trembling, and Sakura noticed. _This isn't like Naruto… he must be down. I should cheer him up._

Inside Naruto's head was a different thought. "LISTEN UP YOU BASTARDS! MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI OF THE HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE, AND I WON'T LOSE TO ANY ONE OF YOU!" _Now they'll seek me out and I can prove myself._

"Hey!" Ino yelled at Sakura, "What is he doing??"

Sakura thought blankly, "Of course he's not scared. He's too stupid."

A pair of genin were talking about Kabuto. "He thinks the Sound is a minor village?" one who had spiky black hair held behind a sound headband which also had leather flaps that outlined his jaw.

"Let's help him add to his information… the sound ninja can be quite vicious."

They moved quickly through the crowd and leapt out and attacked Kabuto. One who was clothed in a bushy cape, long sleeves, and wrappings over his entire face except his left eye leapt out, pulled his right sleeve up to reveal a strange metal device with holes drilled into it. He threw a wide punch at Kabuto, who dodged backwards and allowed it to barely pass by his nose.

Kabuto's glasses cracked, however.

"What's going on? He dodged it, but his glasses still cracked." Sasuke said. Shikamaru comment about how he probably got hit on the nose.

_I see. Cool attack. The thing on his arm takes in sound waves and he makes them into an attack with his chakra .You could be devastating to groups like that. _Naruto thought, smirking. He liked understanding; it was pretty fun.

Kabuto fell to his knees and vomited on the ground. "Kabuto-san!" Sakura yelled, and ran up to check on him. Naruto was close behind, ready to defend them both.

The spiky haired one said "Write this down on your cards: 'Hidden Sound Ninjas are definitely future chunin.'"

A smoke erupted from the front of the class, accompanied with loud booming voice yelling "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP YOU WORTHLESS BASTARDS!" A group of older leaf ninja were at the front of the class, all in the same uniform. Except the source of the loud voice, who was wearing a black trench coat.

He had three major scars across his face, along with a wry smile, that showed how happy he was to be the intimidating person he was. "Thanks for waiting. I'm Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first part of the exam." He pointed a gloved finger, "Sound guys, stop what you're doing. Do you want to fail already?"

The one with a wrapped face apologized and gave an excuse for their behavior. "There will be no fighting without permission of the proctor. Even if permission is given, you will not kill your opponent. Those who disobey me will fail immediately." He paused, to let his instruction set in. "Now, instead of your current seating arrangement, you'll pick one of these numbers. You'll take your seat and then we'll hand out the exam."

Sakura quietly gasped and looked at Naruto, expectantly.

Naruto looked bored, actually. "Well it kind of figures to take a written test. We are in a class room…" Naruto started shuffling like everybody else to get a number.

After being seated, Naruto saw he was next to Hinata. "Oh! Hey Hinata-chan! How's it been?"

"G-good, Naruto-kun." She looked away quickly, and fidgeted her fingers together.

_Well, I guess this means I get a chance to realize she likes me. _Naruto blinked, and Sylar's power kicked in. _HOLY CRAP!! HINATA LIKES ME?!?_ _What do I do what do I do? Do I tell her?? Nono, that'll just make her freak out and distract her during the test, which is bad. I'll just confront her about it after the exam. That should work._

"L-let's do our best, Naruto-kun."

"Of course Hinata! There's no way this exam will trip me up, datteybayo!"

The two of them turned their attention to Ibiki, who was explaining the rules of the exam to the group of genin. "Rule one: Everyone starts off with 10 points. If you answer a question wrong, you get a point off. All answers wrong means zero points, which means you fail. Second, this is a team test, which means if one of you fail, all of you fail."

Sakura interrupted, "What?? Why is this a team test?"

"Shut up. You don't have the right to question me. There's a reason for this. The third rule is if any of you are caught cheating, it's two points off for each offence. So there will be some who lose all their points during the exam and will be asked to leave."

One of the many examiners lining the walls said menacingly, "We'll have our eyes on you."

"Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught will only be destroying themselves." Ibiki continued, "As ninja trying to obtain the rank of chunin, be proud ninjas. And the final rule: those that miss all the questions will fail along with their two team mates."

_Oh shit._ Thought Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto.

"The exam will last one hour. Begin."

Sakura looked over the questions, and realized they were difficult. Most required both book smarts and experience, which the majority of people in that room didn't have. _Just don't get zero points Naruto…_

Naruto was silently laughing. _I love this ability! Of course this test isn't a measure of our smarts! It's seeing how quietly we can gather information. They practically gave it away with telling us we get two points off for every offence of cheating. If it was about smarts, then they'd throw us out if we cheated once. Plus, what's with question ten?_ Naruto looked at the bottom right corner of the paper. It read "This question will be revealed 45 minutes after the test begins. Listen to the examiner closely before answering." _Like Kakashi says, 'Look underneath the underneath.' _

Naruto looked over the questions and answered the two that he knew. One was a math problem; his ability pretty much told him what went where and solved itself. The other was a cryptogram, his ability's worst nightmare. _ Awesome; with this, I'm sure Sasuke will cheat and get his answers and Sakura-chan's smart enough to know all of these anyway. Now all we have to do is wait on the tenth question. _

Slowly, other genin realized the true purpose of the test, and used their various gifts to get all the answers they could. One made an eye out of sand and controlled it to float around and see the answers. Another had a puppet join the ranks of the proctors to write the answers for him. Two used their special eyes to look through the others and see the correct answers. Two used their clan's animals to help, and yet another listened to the strokes of the pencils around him to determine the answers.

Sasuke cheated by using his Sharingan to copy the movements of the person in front of him.

Naruto was lounging around, waiting on the tenth question and thinking about Hinata when a kunai flew by him and made a thud in the paper of a genin behind him. "What was that for??" the kid asked a proctor.

"You messed up five times. You fail. The other two on his team get out of here, right now."

Naruto silently sighed and propped his head on his hands. Hinata must have thought he was freaking out, because she said "N-Naruto-kun, you can look at my test if you want."

Naruto looked at her confused, then realized what she meant. _She must think I was freaking out over the exam. She's so thoughtful… _ "No thanks Hinata! I can do this on my own, datteybayo!"

Hinata's smile got a little smaller as she turned back to her own test. _He doesn't need me…_

Ino had waited on Sakura to stop writing and used her family's jutsu to transfer her consciousness from her own body to Sakura's. She memorized the answers Sakura had put down and then transferred to Shikamaru and Choji.

Teams started getting told to leave due to cheating. By 5:15, 13 teams out of the original 51 teams were gone.

Ibiki was particularly impressed with Gaara, who was incredibly calm through the psychotic warfare he was waging on the genin.

Kankuro was escorted to the bathroom by a 'proctor,' really his puppet Karasu in disguise.

_Now that the trash is gone, I guess it's that time. _Ibiki thought. "We will now start with the tenth question."

A dramatic hush fell over the crowd, only to be broken by Kankuro walking back from the bathroom. No one noticed when he threw something small at Temari.

"Now, let me explain the rules of the tenth question. For this question… you have to chose whether or not to take it."

"What?? What happens if we chose not to take it?" Temari exclaimed.

"Then your points will be reduced to zero, and you will fail along with your other teammates."

"Well then of course we'll take the tenth question!" A random waterfall ninja yelled.

"And now, the other rule," Ibiki calmly continued, "If you chose to take it, and answer incorrectly, then you will lose the right to ever take the chunin exam ever again."

Akamaru barked loudly while Kiba yelled, "What kind of stupid rule is that?? There are guys here who have taken the exam before!"

Ibiki laughed quite evilly. "You guys were unlucky. This year it's my rules. I am giving you a way out. Those of you not confident enough to take the tenth question take leave now and take it again in six months."

_Well this is weird. _Naruto thought, trying to figure out what was going on. _I'm not sure I can answer this tenth question… but if I chose to get out of it now, then Sasuke and Sakura-chan also fail. Both choices are bad, but which is worse… I'll take the question. No way will I miss this question, datteybayo!_ Naruto started shaking in excitement. _This is going to be awesome, datteybayo! Maybe Sakura-chan will see how calm I am in this and… OH NO! SAKURA-CHAN! _Naruto had a sudden revelation. _She's going to try and be nice! She thinks I'm going to fail this, and quit just so I don't stay a genin forever! Crap crap crap! _

Naruto started shaking even more, and he was right about Sakura. _Naruto… why aren't you raising your hand? If you miss this question… you can't ever be Hokage. Always acting like a fool who only knows one thing… I'm sorry Naruto, but I don't want to see that impossible dream of yours crushed!_

Naruto was freaking out more. People were quitting left and right, six teams already. _How can I make her know that I'm not going to back down from this?!_ Naruto shakily rose his hand, and Sasuke and Hinata looked at him shocked.

Naruto stood up and slammed his hand down on the table, yelling "I will not run!! I'll take your stupid question! Even if I'm a genin forever, I'll still be Hokage!! I'm not afraid!" Naruto plopped down and let out a huge sigh. _That should do it!_

Sakura gave a small smile, _Yeah… Naruto's too stupid to be afraid of this._

"This is your last chance. Your entire life is riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit." Ibiki was taunting Naruto.

"I'll follow my unbending words. That's my ninja way." Everyone had smug smirks on their face, their fears blasted away.

_78 left… more than I expected. Well, stretching this on any longer wouldn't make any diffence now._ "Good decisions. Now, to all of you who remain… I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

The entire room looked at him like he had grown an extra head. "What do you mean? What about the tenth question?"

"You could say that those two choices were the tenth question. The purpose of this test, as most of you have guessed, was to cheat to get all the correct answers. No average genin could know all of the answers, so we planted a few chunin who knew them all among you."

As he was explaining, Naruto sat with his arms crossed and nodded. He actually understood.

Ibiki started to take off his headband, and revealed his bald head."Those that cheat poorly, however…" The crowd gasped as they saw his head, scarred with gashed and massive holes. "Understand this: in some instances, information is more important than life, and on missions and on the battlefield, some people will risk their lives to get it. I want you to remember this. Information in your hands can be a powerful weapon for your comrades and for the village. So we had you cheat. Those that cheated poorly aren't qualified to be leaders in combat."

Temari was still confused, "I still don't understand the final question."

Ibiki smiled and put his headband and do-rag back on. "The final question was the true purpose of the test. The 'Take it or don't take it' choice. Obviously, these were painful choices. Those who choose the latter fail along with their teammates. Those who choose to take it… could lose the chance to ever the test again; a true leap of faith. Here… let me explain again. Say you guys become chunin. Your mission is to steal a secret document. The amount of ninja, their abilities, numbers, etc. is unknown to you. Now, do you accept or not? Because you don't want to die, you don't want your teammates to die, can you avoid the dangerous mission? No!"

Naruto was smirking, taking the indirect praise he was receiving. "No matter what the danger, there are some missions you can't avoid. The ability to be courageous, and survive any hardship… this is the ability needed to become a chunin captain! You have made it through the first test of the chunin examination. I wish you luck.

"HELL YEAH!" Burst out Naruto.

Suddenly, a mass burst through a window, and unfurled to reveal a woman in her 20s dressed in fishnets and a trench coat standing in front of a black banner. "This is no time to be celebrating! I am the examiner for the second test! Anko Mitarashi! Now let's go!! Follow me!"

Everyone in the room just kind of started at her. "Bad timing." Ibiki said, coming out from behind the banner.

Sakura mumbled about the examiner being very "Naruto-ish."

"78??" Anko yelled at Ibiki. "You left 26 teams?? This test was way too easy this time! Bah, that's fine. I'll cut them in half, at least. Ah, I'm getting excited. I'll explain everything when we change locations. Follow me."

When they stopped traveling, they were facing a fence with massive trees and gnarly roots above the ground, giving the appearance of an incredibly creepy place.

Anko told them they were at Training ground 44, otherwise known as "The Forrest of Death."


	7. The Forest of Death

The Forest of Death

"This is creepy." Said Sakura, unnerved by the massive trees and darkness inside the fence.

Anko didn't help, as she said in a tone creepy enough to match the forest itself, "You'll soon find out why it's called 'The Forest of Death'."

Naruto was still excited from his indirect compliments from the first exam, and yelled out , mocking Anko, "You'll soon find out why it's called 'The Forest of Death!' Give me a break! This place doesn't scare me, datteybayo!"

Anko gave a small smile and said "Yeah… you're spirited." Before Naruto could react, she had taken out a kunai and thrown it at Naruto, scraping his cheek deep enough to bleed. She was suddenly behind him, and told him how kids like him were usually the first to die while licking the blood off his cheek.

Her eyes suddenly narrowed, and while still holding Naruto pulled out another kunai and nearly stabbed a boy who was giving her back her kunai, which was held in his long tongue. "Here's you kunai back."

Anko made a face and said "Thank you. But unless you want to die, don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry, it's just… when I see fresh red blood like that, I get excited."

Hinata was worried for Naruto. _N-Naruto-kun… don't get hurt._

"Lots of blood thirsty ones this exam… this should be fun!" Anko said, reverting to a childish glee for a moment. "Now, before we start the second test, I have something to pass out!" She was holding a stack of papers, "You've all got to sign these agreement forms! There will be deaths in this one, and if you don't sign these, it'll be my problem. I'm going to explain this test, and then you're going to sign them. You'll then hand them in to the booth behind me. Now, this test is going to be the ultimate survival."

There was a groan from Shikamaru. "Survival? Man, this test sucks."

"First, I'll explain the layout of the area." Anko continued, "Training ground 44 is approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. In the center, there is a tower, and a river runs through it. Around the area, there are 44 locked gates. During your survival in here, you will be asked to compete in an all out, no rules scroll battle. You will be given a scroll, Heaven or Earth, in exchange for the forms you're all holding. There are 26 teams here. 13 will get the Heaven Scroll, and 13 will get the Earth scroll. To pass this test, you have to get to the tower with both scrolls."

Sakura remembered how she said she would eliminate at least half.

"There is also a time limit. This exam will last 120 hours, exactly five days."

Choji freaked out at this, wondering about food. "There's plenty of food in the forest. Just watch out of the poisonous insects, poisonous plants, man-eating beasts…" She continued, "And 13 teams passing is not likely. As the days go on, the distance to the goal will become farther, and the time to rest will be shorter. The area is crawling with enemies as well, so you won't get much sleep. Now, I'll talk about what will disqualify you. One, those that don't make it to the tower with both scrolls and within the time limit will fail. Two, those who lose a teammate or have a teammate killed will fail. As a rule, there is no quitting in the middle. You will be in there for 5 days. Third, you must not look inside the scroll."

"What happens if we do?" Asked Naruto, whose cheek had healed.

"There will be an unpleasant surprise for those who do." Naruto seemed to understand but Anko went on anyway. "As a chunin, you will be asked to handle classified information. This is to test your trustworthiness. That's all for explanations. Turn in your forms and accept your scroll, and choose a gate from which to start the exam. Final words of advice… don't die."

After everyone had turned in their forms, they all went to their respective gates.

"Yahoo!" Kiba yelled at gate 16, "Survival is our specialty! Don't go soft on us, Hinata!"

"Risking our lives… this is troublesome, but we have to do it." Shikamaru announced to his team.

"All right guys! Here we go! You ready for this?" Sasuke and Sakura gave small smiles at Naruto's enthusiasm.

"Hehe… it's finally here; a chance to fulfill our mission." The leader of the sound team thought.

Kankuro was simply thinking about how scared he was of Gaara.

The mysterious grass ninja that had picked up Anko's kunai before was telling his team to go after the rookies.

Lee was promising Gai he'd do his best, while Neji was as stoic as ever.

Anko yelled out to everyone, "The second test of the chunin exam starts NOW!" The gates all burst open and all the teams bolted into the forest.

--

Team 8, which consisted of Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, were standing in a small clearing. "Everyone's headed to the tower, right? We should head there and set up some traps." Kiba said, very aware of the other leaf team behind them. They would come to their fate soon enough.

Sure enough, three screams were heard, and chakra eating slugs were raining from the sky onto the unsuspecting elderly leaf team. They tried to run, but were caught in a net.

Kiba spoke again, and said "One down. This test is pretty easy, don't you think?"

--

With Team 7, Naruto said he had to go to the bathroom, glancing at Sasuke. "I'll go behind this tree, all right?"

Sasuke grunted, and a few moments later Naruto came back. "Wow, that was great! So much-"

Sasuke was suddenly there and punched him in the stomach. "Where's the real Naruto, you imposter?"

"What the hell? What are you talking about?"

"Naruto's right handed, but your kunai holster is on your left leg. You're a fake who's worse than Naruto at transforming."

"Naruto" poofed into a rain ninja who had a breathing apparatus over his mouth, distorting his voice. "So you saw through it… no matter! Now, which of you has the scroll?"

When neither of them answered, he replied "I'll just take it by force then!"

On his sprint over to where the two stood, Sasuke leapt into the air and yelled "**Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**" Multiple fireballs spewed from his mouth, and the rain genin jumped up to avoid getting burned. Sasuke armed himself with two kunai, and jumped to meet the enemy head on. They clashed briefly, and the genin took to the trees.

Sasuke saw Naruto tied up, and threw a kunai down to him. The rain genin took this distraction as an opportunity to counter, and threw a kunai of his own. Sasuke ducked behind a tree limb, and then noticed the exploding tag attached to the ring of the kunai. _Shit!_

Sasuke leapt away, but was caught partially in the explosion, landed on his hands and knees. The rain genin took this opportunity to get behind him and threaten him to give the scroll over.

Naruto had freed himself, however, and threw the kunai Sasuke had given him at their enemy. He leapt away, freeing up Sasuke. "You won't get away that easily!"

Another Naruto was in the way of the genin's escape, and stabbed him in the leg with a kunai. Sasuke was right behind him, and stabbed his left arm.

_Damn. It wasn't worth splitting up the group for this. I'll come back with my team._ He sped away, escaping Sasuke and Naruto.

Team 7 regrouped, and Sasuke decided to make a codeword. "Just in case we get separated again. It's from the song 'Ninja Machine.' When asked, answer with 'A large amount of loud enemies is the friend of the ninja, hide and remain silent. A ninja must understand the proper time; when the enemy is tired and ill prepared.'"

_So that's his game. _Naruto knew the true reason for the long password, but played along anyway. There could be enemy ninja watching. "Wait! That's impossible to remember!"

Sakura said condescendingly, "Are you stupid? I've already got it memorized.

Sasuke stood up and said "I'll hold the scroll."

Suddenly, there was a massive burst of wind. Team 7 dove and hid behind cover.

After the affair, Sakura stood up and found Sasuke. He demanded the password from her, and she recited it perfectly. "Good." He said, and Naruto walked out of the bushes, dazed. Sakura followed Sasuke's lead and asked him the password. He also recited it perfectly.

Sasuke smirked, and quickly threw a kunai at Naruto. He dodged.

"So you're good enough to dodge my attacks? Good."

After a puff of smoke, Naruto was replaced by the grass ninja from before, who had caught Anko's kunai. "So how did you know it wasn't him?"

"Naruto could never remember a password that long."

"I see. This will be more fun than I thought."

The two tensed for a battle.

--

Naruto had been thrown into a tree, hundreds of feet away. "Owwwwww… Where's Sakura-chan and that bastard?" He looked up in shock, as he had caught the attention of a massive snake.

The snake had one thought; food.

Naruto felt something behind him, and turned around just in time to get caught by the tail of the massive python, and the beast opened its jaw, prepared to eat Naruto.

The snake's jaws unhinged and Naruto soon found himself in the belly of the beast. _Damn it! I can't die here!_

Complete terror engulfed Naruto, and he was suddenly freezing cold. The snake was being frozen from the inside out, and it writhed in pain. The snake crumbled into ice around him, and Naruto was freed. _What the hell??_ _Oh whatever! I'll think about it later! I need to get back to Sasuke and Sakura-chan!_

Naruto bolted through the destruction just in time to see the grass genin emerging from a dead snake.

--

"It wasn't Naruto again!?" Sakura yelled, dismayed. _Right, if it had been Naruto, he would've said something like "I forgot the codeword!" _

"You guys want my scroll, right?" The grass Nin opened his mouth and his long tongue wrapped around the Earth Scroll. He swallowed it whole. "Now, let's begin the battle for each other's scrolls."

He looked Sasuke and Sakura in the eyes, and they both froze with fear. He was emitting such killer intent at the both of them; they were each seeing themselves die in different ways.

_Such strong killer intent… who is this guy?? _Sasuke was frozen with fear. _I have to get out of here! He'll kill us both!_

The genin from the Grass village grinned and threw two kunai with a flick of his wrist at Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke had stabbed himself in the leg to override the fear and sprinted himself and Sakura to safety.

_Hehe… just as I thought; this is no normal prey._

--

Sasuke had hidden behind a tree, desperate to get away from that killer intent. _How are we going to escape him??_

He was panicking so much he didn't notice a large snake dangling down behind him. "Sasuke-kun! Snake!" Sakura was yelling, the fear evident in her voice.

Sasuke leapt away, throwing numerous shuriken and kunai at the snake, preserving his life for a few moments longer. "Get away!!"

The snake fell, dead. Sasuke panted for a few moments, allowing himself to be calm for a few precious moments.

A hole burst open in the snake near its head, and the man emerged from it. "You shouldn't relax for even a moment in the presence of a predator, Sasuke-kun." He wrapped around a tree, propelling himself quickly up it. He was stopped, because shuriken hit the tree right before he was there, and a voice called out.

"Sorry Sasuke! I forgot the codeword!" Naruto was standing on a high tree branch, arms crossed and a smug look about him.

Sasuke panicked and yelled at Naruto, "Get away! He's on a whole other level! We're no match for him!" He turned his attention back to the powerful genin before them. _This is bad… at this rate, we'll all be killed. I have no other choice. _

Sasuke offered the scroll to the genin. "Please, take it and leave us in peace."

"WHAT??" Naruto yelled at the Uchiha, jumping down to him. "What do you mean??"

"You didn't feel the killer intent earlier, Naruto! He's way too strong! This is the only way!" Sasuke turned back to the enemy. "Here, take it and leave." Sasuke threw the scroll to the grass ninja, but moments before it reached him, Naruto sped and caught it. He landed right in front of Sasuke. "What are you doing, you bastard?? Don't you understand the situation??"

Naruto threw a punch at Sasuke, sending him crashing to the tree limb.

"Who are you?? Where's the real Sasuke!"

"What are you talking about, dobe? I'm him!"

"No! You're not! The Sasuke I know would never be such a coward, or an idiot! If you give him the scroll, he'll probably kill us anyway! You're too freaked out right now to understand the situation!"

The grass ninja chuckled darkly, "He's right, Sasuke-kun. I'm going to kill you, with or without your scroll. Very perceptive, Naruto-kun." He pulled up his sleeve and drew blood from his thumb as Naruto charged at him. He was too late, however, and the man uttered "Summoning Jutsu."

Out of a whirlwind of twigs and leaves, another massive snake appeared, the grass ninja riding on top of it. The snake flipped its tail up, and Naruto flew high into the air. Tree limbs were snapped in half with the force of Naruto's body, until he crashed painfully into an especially thick limb.

Sasuke was still frozen in fear, when Naruto called out to him through his coughed up blood. "Sasuke, use your new attack!!!" That snapped Sasuke out of his stupor, and he understood. He raised his forefinger and middle finger to his forehead, Akarai whirling around them in a condensed cylinder.

_Damn… I need a few more moments to concentrate on this. _Sasuke yelled for Naruto to hold him off for a little longer.

"Got it!" Naruto allowed himself to fall, and the snake went to swallow him whole. Naruto flipped, and punched it on the tip of its mouth, red lightning coursing around his fist. "EAT SHIT!"

The affect was like a shotgun. The lightning burst forward, and left deep gashes in the snake's face. It coiled back and writhed in pain.

Sakura was staying out of the thick of the battle, wondering when Naruto took the Akarai. _He must have done it then…_ She remembered when he punched Sasuke, noting Naruto's resourcefulness.

_This kid… no way. _The grass ninja chuckled manically in his head. _Excellent… a new power to take._ _I'll deal with him after Sasuke-kun is mine._ He rode the snake, commanding it to strike Sasuke. "It's your turn now Sasuke! What will you do??"

The snake was stopped in its tracks mere feet before Sasuke. Naruto was there, holding it back. His eyes were a deep red, and his whisker-like marks on his face were more numerous and bolder. "Is that attack ready yet, scaredy cat?" His exhausted grin showed his elongated canines.

"It's ready! Get out of the way, Naruto!"

"I can't! The snake will move and you'll miss this perfect shot! Just fire it through me! I'll get over it!"

"Naruto!!" Sasuke pointed his fingers at Naruto, right at his chest. The resulting attack was a deep purple, nearly black line of chakra; a bright blue strip of chakra wrapped around it. The attack was like a drill, propelling itself through the snake's mouth, then brain. Naruto was struck right through the heart; the attack had seared his wound closed, and he didn't even bleed.

_If that attack had hit me, I would be dead. _The grass ninja's eyes were wide. _Something's wrong here. They both have the same ability? No… that's too unlikely. One of them must be able to mimic the other's… Sasuke-kun probably can copy it due to the sharingan. That must be it._

Naruto collapsed, his heart utterly fried.

--

Three special chunin were gathered around an unseemly sight at a graveyard.

"Three dead bodies? This must be some sort of ninjutsu."

"Regardless, we need to tell Anko-san as soon as possible."

They leapt away and sped towards The Forest of Death.

--

Anko was sipping on juice and munching on dango. She idly tossed the stick into the tree beside her. Due to the number of sticks, and precision of Anko's tosses, they formed the Hidden Leaf's symbol. "Better get to the tower now. The fast ones only need about 24 hours."

"Anko-sama!!" A chunin appeared in front of her, very stressed. "There are three bodies! And they're weird! Please come!"

Moments later, they were at the graveyard, and Anko was being told the bodies were from the Hidden Grass. "Their papers and belongings seem to indicate such, but as you can see, they have no faces. They're blank, like they've been melted off."

_There's no mistaking it, this is his jutsu. Why is he in this exam? "_Get me their pictures, now!" Documents almost immediately appeared in her hands. It was the body of the grass genin from before, the one who had given her back her kunai. _He already had that face at that time… _"This is bad! You guys go alert Hokage-sama and tell him to send ANBU captains into The Forest! I'm going in now!"

--

The snake had died, and the man on it jumped to safety on the same limb as Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke had very little chakra right now, but was yelling for Sakura to come over.

The grass ninja wrapped his long tongue around Naruto's stomach. He pulled Naruto towards himself, and examined the seal on his stomach. _I see. The kyuubi brat is still alive. When your emotions get heightened, his chakra leaks over… interesting. _"Oh my, the seal is visible. You may be dead, but just in case…" He fused his fingers full of chakra, and shoved them over the seal on Naruto's stomach. "**Five Part Seal!" **The man threw Naruto aside, and Sakura got there just in time to catch him.

The grass ninja threw a kunai at Sakura, gashing her deeply across the face. She gasped and ignored the pain; Naruto was more important.

_Naruto, please! Take my ability! Heal!!_ Sakura willed with all her might to see a shimmer of light, signifying the transfer of abilities. It didn't come. Sakura screamed out in misery "Naruto!!!!"

Sasuke had engaged the man, and threw a windmill shuriken and two kunai at him, all with wire attached.

_Heh. I see. He read where I could escape to, and threw weapons there. To use the sharingan so well at such a young age…_

"**Dragon Fire no Jutsu!"** Fire ran along the wire, landing a square hit on the man's face.

It appeared to melt half off. "You truly have the Uchiha blood. I sense power in you that surpasses your brother. Just as I thought: I want you."

Sasuke was frozen again, unable to look away from the man's terrifying eye. "Who the hell are you??"

"My name is Orochimaru. (Just a little author's note: I am SO sorry for all the pronouns and different names I had to use for him. I couldn't say his name unless they knew it so… yeah.)If you want to see me again, then survive this exam, and defeat my men, the sound trio.

"What the hell are you talking about?? I never want to see your face again!"

Orochimaru chuckled, "That's going to change." He made a strange seal and his neck extended over to Sasuke and bit him on the neck. "You will seek me to gain power, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke collapsed, screaming in pain.

Sakura stood and ran over to Sasuke to check on him as well. "What did you do to him??"

Orochimaru started to melt into the tree, "I gave him a going away present." His lower body was already in the tree, when he noticed Sakura had lost the deep gash he had given her. "Oh? Where did your wound go, Sakura-chan? That's very interesting."He made eye contact with her, freezing her with fear again.

"Can you heal yourself, Sakura-chan? That must be very useful… Let me see that lovely brain of yours." Orochimaru pulled out a kunai and slowly walked towards her. "You see, I can acquire the abilities of others by understand how their abilities work. I do that by looking at your brain. Your ability would come in handy for my quest for immortality. I wonder; can you die?"

He reached his hand over her head and pulled the kunai across her scalp, blood leaking from it profusely. Sakura screamed, not so much in pain, but because this man who had so terrified her was now ripping open her skull. It would seem odd not to scream.

He was stopped by a strong hand on his wrist, and was flung into the trunk of the tree. _Who has the strength to do that??_

Sakura could only see his back, and that he was clothed in a black cloak with orange flames stitched into the hem. He had spiky, shoulder length blonde hair as well, and was probably six feet tall. He was maybe nineteen or twenty.

Orochimaru, however, could see his front. "Yondame?? How is this possible??"

The blonde gave an angry growl. "Good guess, you bastard." He was suddenly in front of Orochimaru, fist in his stomach. "But wrong." The momentum took Orochimaru and slammed him again into the trunk of the tree, splintering the wood around him and creating a three foot deep crater.

_Such speed!_ Orochimaru was afraid. It was a new emotion for him.

"You're so much easier to fight without your abilities, you filthy snake." He walked over and picked up Orochimaru by his hair.

Orochimaru drew a kunai as fast as he could and tried to plunge it into the man's heart, but was stopped, very easily. "As much as I want to kill you, I can't. Be thankful for that, you murdering filth!"

The blonde man snapped Orochimaru's wrist and raised his own hand to the snake's face. "This is for Kakashi."

Orochimaru was blown back to the tree, spread eagle on the wood. The man held his hand at Orochimaru's stomach and blasted again, driving him farther and farther into the tree. He yelled a name for every burst.

"Konohamaru! Tsunade! Kiba! Shikamaru! The old man! Sakura! Choji! Sai! Ino! **EVERYONE YOU KILLED YOU MURDERING FUCK!!!**"

The man seemed ferocious now, and Sakura hoped she wouldn't be the next target. Then she realized what the man had said. _Orochimaru… killed all those people? Kakashi-sensei? Konohamaru? ME? I'm not dead! What's going on??_

By the time the blonde had finished his rant, Orochimaru was almost through the tree. Naruto looked like he was about done, but drew in a large breath and screamed, **"HINATAAAAAA!!!!!!!!**" As he yelled this, the sound was tearing away at the tree, until the bark was completely gone from a section.

The man was panting heavily, now. His voice was just above a whisper. "Go away now, Orochimaru. Never come near this girl again. If you do, so help me, I will erase you from existence. Every cell will be obliterated. I warned you."

The man turned to walk to Sakura, and Orochimaru took the opportunity to melt into the wood and flee for his life.

--

Sakura was shaking with fear. The man was holding a kunai and dragged her over to Naruto. He held her hand out and cut it, blood spewing forth. It fell into Naruto's mouth, and his wounds started healing. The hole in his chest was patched up, and all but the tiniest of wounds was gone.

"He'll be unconscious for a few more hours. So will Sasuke. Are you all right, Sakura-chan?"

She uttered a shaky "Yeah." And stared terrified at the man.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I was here to protect you. And save the future."

"S-save the future?"

"Yeah. It took some time, and some valuable lives, but eventually someone was discovered who could control the space-time continuum."

"Space-time what?"

"Oh, right. Umm… Orochimaru was supposed to take your ability here. He's staging an attack on the Hidden Leaf, and since he couldn't die… well… he succeeded. The leaf was taken over, and all but a few escaped. Some were killed in the process, some accepted it, and then some resisted. They were slaughtered. I and a few others escaped and formed a rebellion against Orochimaru, trying to find a way to kill an immortal ninja. It wasn't easy. Eventually, we came across a person who could control time and space. He only knew the extent of freezing time, however. With Sylar's ability, I knew he could do more than that. So we found him and convinced him to take us back in time. After that, it was all deciding where I should come back to. So we chose here."

"S-so when you were fighting Orochimaru… those people all died?"

The blonde nodded.

"Then what happened to the rest of the rookie nine?"

"Sasuke's body was taken by Orochimaru, the rest joined the resistance. The younger ones couldn't escape, so they were brainwashed into thinking it was all normal. All those I mentioned died while in the resistance, except…" He seemed to struggle with the name. "Hinata." He lowered his head and clenched his fists. "She… was taken to Orochimaru, who was in Sasuke's body. She was used in an experiment… to see what would happen if Sharingan and Byakugan were mixed. The purpose was to provide the bastard with a new body in future years, if it was successful. It wasn't.

"So he eventually came across Ino, who was on a dangerous recon mission into the Leaf. She provided him with twins, both trained from a young age, probably destined to fight it out to see who would have the "honor" of being Orochimaru's new body. "

"So, what happened to Naruto? Was he supposed to die here? Unless you gave him my blood?"

The man shook his head. "You found out you could do that even if I didn't show up."

"So then where…?"

"Sakura-chan," the man looked at her with deep blue eyes and broad black whisker marks. "I'm Naruto."

--

So yeah! I hope you all liked the chapter! Some abilities revealed, an Easter Egg in there, and a cliff hanger! I think. Hm.

But I hope the plot twist was a good one! It took forever to think of something. Thanks to Sagekyuubi for helping me through it! Just so you all know, all reviews will be answered and all ideas messaged to me will be considered, but not all will be used.

I also accept harsh criticism. Just keep the reviews and messages coming.


	8. Sakura's Limelight

Hey people, sorry about taking so long to post. I just moved away from home for the first time and it took some adjusting. The new video game had nothing to do with it. Promise. _

Anyway! Here's the next chapter, finished at the last minute! Enjoy!

Sakura's Limelight

Anko Mitarashi sped through The Forest of Death, the sun setting quickly behind her. _"It's almost nightfall. I must find him quickly. If it gets totally dark… I'll be at an even further disadvantage. But why is he here? And at a time like this?" _He cloak was flapping wildly behind her, and she continued her pondering. "_Well, it makes no difference. If you came to the village, then we will settle things now. You are a level 'S' rank dangerous person. I must stop you even if it costs me my life. And if that's not possible, I must slow you down until the ANBU get here. I learned everything from you. I was one of your men, and thus…"_

"That is my job, isn't it Orochimaru?"

He seemingly grew out of the tree, just behind Anko. She jumped and drew some sebon needles from her sleeve, throwing them at her former master. He simply deflected them, and she noticed for the first time how run down and tired he looked.

"What happened to you?" Anko asked, a safe distance away. She was tensed for the slightest movement on his part.

"I ran into a minor resistance during my plan." He said, smug smile apparent on his face.

"And what plan was that?"

He laughed quietly. "We haven't seen each other in a while, yet you're so cold, Anko."

She gripped her left collar bone, and asked the white skinned man "Are you planning to assassinate Hokage-sama?"

"No, I don't have enough men for that. I thought I'd recruit some outstanding genin from this village first." He noticed her panting and gripping her shoulder in pain. "I just gave a kid one of those "Curse Seals." There's a kid that I want…"

"How selfish. He's going to die, you know." Anko was sweating by now, barely able to stay on her feet.

"The chance of surviving is one in ten, but like you, he might not die."

"You must really like this kid."

"Jealous, are we? Are you still upset that I threw you away, Anko?"

She fell to her knees; the pain was coursing through her body.

"Unlike you, this kid has some talent. He's a kid who carries the Uchiha blood. He's the perfect vessel for my next body."

Anko was on her face now, almost losing consciousness.

"Don't stop the exams prematurely. Three from my village are taking this exam… I'm going to enjoy this. If you try to end my enjoyment, the Leaf Village is finished."

Anko looked up just in time to see Orochimaru disappear in a cloud of smoke.

--

"The sun will be up in about an hour. We've spent the first day collecting food and water. Most teams are resting now. Let's attack during the time we planned." Neji was reminding his team of the plan they had concocted earlier in the exam. "Let's split up and spend 30 minutes scouting the area. But whether or not you find a team, we meet back here in 30 minutes." He dropped a kunai into the ground. "Got that?"

"Ok."

"Roger!!"

"And Lee, I know you'll want to, but don't."

"What do I not do Neji?" Lee asked, exuberantly and puzzled.

"Never mind. Fate determines that you must."

Lee gave him a quizzical look. Before he could question Neji further, Neji had already yelled "Go!!" and they had gone their separate ways.

--

Sasuke was grunting and sweating beneath the massive tree that served as his protection. Sakura was tending to him, worrying about his well-being. "_I don't understand! I gave him my blood… his cuts and bruises are gone!_ _Why is he still in so much pain??"_

"It won't work, Sakura-chan." Naruto said, knowing what she was thinking. "The Curse Mark can't be healed with your blood. It's… like an infection, only worse. Normally, your ability replaces the cells that are damaged or missing. When you give your blood to someone else, the same thing happens to them for a limited time. The Curse Mark makes the body think the cells are there naturally. It won't work.

"Naruto

"So he's just going to die then?? How can you let that happen??" Sakura was nearly hysterical.

"Sakura, calm down!" Naruto looked at her with piercing blue eyes. "He'll be fine. Hopefully, this time, he'll not go to Orochimaru. But I don't know."

She took a deep breath. "How long are you going to be here, Naruto?" She blinked. "And what's wrong with this Naruto?"

She pointed to little Naruto, who was relatively peaceful to the boy next to him.

"He got a seal put on him that disrupts his chakra flow. He's knocked out for a while, but he should be fine. He'll have trouble controlling his chakra until someone removes it."

Future Naruto paused here, as if remembering a fond time. "I have to leave soon, Sakura. It's up to you to keep these two safe."

"But why can't you stay here?? You could take on anyone you wanted here!"

"I can't interfere too much. I just came to stop you from dying. Nothing else." Future Naruto stood and turned his back to Sakura. "A last word of advice, Sakura-chan,"

Sakura turned her head and looked at the older Naruto's back.

"… Don't tell either of them about me. It might cause a rift that could collapse the universe in on itself."

Sakura was taken aback. "_Just saying a few words could destroy everything?"_

And with that, the tall, strong blonde was gone; hardly any trace of his presence was left behind.

She looked back down to the unconscious duo. "_I… I must protect them!"_

--

An old, one-armed man was sitting next to a fire at the mouth of a cave. His long white hair touched the ground. He heard someone approaching, and turned his head slightly in recognition. "Did it work?"

The younger man snorted. "If it did, we wouldn't be here, would we?"

"I suppose you're right. But why didn't it work? Surely Orochimaru didn't get her after you left."

The younger man joined the elder at the fire, sitting with his legs crossed. "I think… we can't change the timeline we're in now." He drew a line on the ground. "This," a point on the line was chosen, "is where I went back to stop him." Another line was drawn from the point chosen. "This will be their timeline; different because it was changed. But to them, it's normal. I didn't make things better for us, but I made their lives better. I think that's worth it."

"You've become smarter since we met, haven't you brat?" He threw back his head in laughter, his old, dry hair swaying about.

Naruto allowed himself a small smile; the first in a long time. "Whatever you say, Jiraiya-sensei."

--

Three sound genin observed Sakura and her fallen comrades from a safe, hidden distance.

"As Orochimaru-sama commanded, we attack at daybreak. Our target is Sasuke Uchiha." The leader, covered in bandages said.

"But if the other two get in the way, we can kill them too, right?"

"Of course."

--

Sakura stayed up all night, guarding her teammates and treating Sasuke for his high fever. Every few minutes she would take the rag off Sasuke's forehead and dipped it in a nearby stream, and returned it to its place.

She shook sleep off, knowing the urgency of their situation. "_If I fall asleep, I can't protect them and we'll fail the exam!"_

The sun poked through the dense over brush, and Sakura sighed in relief. "_At least no one will attack us now."_

She heard a noise behind her and quickly grabbed a kunai and spun around.

A tiny squirrel was looking at her curiously, a nut in its tiny paws. "_A squirrel scared me? I need to get some sleep…" _

When the squirrel came closer to Sakura, she flipped out and threw the kunai at it, making the poor animal scurry away in fear. "_That was close."_

The three sound genin were still in hiding, observing their prey.

"Wow. She noticed the exploding tag on the squirrel?" The other male asked.

"No, that's not it. We'll find out when we get closer."

--

Sakura was nearly nodding off as a voice behind her spoke. "Hehe, been up all night?"

The sound genin from before was standing there with his team. His arms were limp by his side, he was hunched over, and his head tilted. "It's no longer necessary. Wake up Sasuke-kun. We want to fight him."

"I know Orochimaru's pulling the strings behind this!" Sakura cried, adrenaline waking her. "And I know he gave him a Curse Mark! What is he planning?"

"He has a Curse Mark? That's interesting. No matter, we'll kill you all and it won't make a difference."

"If you want Sasuke-kun, you'll have to go through me!" Sakura yelled, kunai held in a defensive position.

"Great! Then here we come!" The other boy yelled.

"Wait Zaku."

"What? Why should I, Dosu?"

Dosu ignored him and talked to Sakura. "You're not very good, you know. An overturned rock, differently colored dirt. Grass doesn't grow here. A booby trap is pointless if people notice it."

Zaku smirked. "Stupid girl. Weaklings like you shouldn't challenge strong guys like us."

The sound team jumped in unison, and Sakura threw her kunai to cut a string holding another trap.

"Another trap from above??" Dosu's visible eye widened, then relaxed. "Yeah right." He held his hand out and blasted the log away with sound. "You think we're weak enough for that?"

He landed behind her, jumped over her sweeping kick, and put his hand on her shoulder. "You're pathetic."

He was just about to blast her, when he was hit it the side of his face by a strong kick. "**Leaf Spinning Wind!!"**

Rock Lee stood there in his strange stance, squirrel on his shoulder. "I will not allow you to harm the beautiful Sakura-chan."

"Who are you??" Dosu said, clinging to his face.

"The Hidden Leaf's beautiful green beast! Rock Lee!" He proclaimed, emphasized by his shiny black hair and sparkling tooth.

"Why are you here Lee? I don't want you to be hurt!" Sakura cried, wanting to prove herself.

"I will always be here to protect you, Sakura-chan." Lee said smoothly. _"Actually, it's all because of you, little guy."_ Lee gently let the squirrel run down his arm and to the ground.

"Well thank you for the idea, Lee. I don't really need it though."

"I do not mind, Sakura-chan! I will always protect you until I die!" Lee clenched his fist infront of him, nearly crying from joy. "_Yes Gai-sensei! I am so cool!"_

Dosu threw his scroll to Zaku and said "You can have Sasuke-kun. I'll take this weirdo." He leapt and drew back his fist to punch Lee. Lee quickly dodged backwards, and Dosu smirked as Lee fell into his trap. "Too bad it's impossible to dodge my attacks."

Dosu let sound rip from his gauntlet, nearly tearing Lee in half. Dosu laughed darkly. "This is what you get for interfering with other people's business." He walked over to where Lee lay, a cut and bloody mess.

"I believe you are mistaken." Dosu quickly turned and saw Lee standing, untouched behind him.

"How…! Genjutsu??" Dosu raised his hand again, and pointed it straight at Lee's face. "DIE!!"

Lee was blasted backwards, making a massive dent in the tree behind him. Dosu blinked and the dent was gone. "What's going on here??"

"Dosu, what are you doing!?" Zaku yelled at his leader. "Attack the freak!"

Dosu turned quickly and blasted where he saw Lee. "What are you doing to me??"

Suddenly, Dosu received a hard punch to the stomach. When he looked, there was nothing there. He flew back several feet, and after skidding a while flipped and charged at Lee, who was standing at his original place, next to Sakura. "I warn you, sound ninja, leave Sakura-chan alone or I will hold back no more."

Dosu laughed and charged Lee again. Lee didn't move an inch. Until he was knocked back into a tree.

"_What is happening? He shouldn't be able to see me."_

--

Team 10 was discussing who to attack when they heard a loud crash close by. "A fight?" Ino said, hopes rising. "Maybe they'll wear out themselves and we can take their scrolls!"

"That would be the only way we could get scrolls. We're the weakest team here." Shikamaru said in his lazy monotone voice.

"That's Sakura's team. And Sasuke's out cold." Choji said calmly, pointed through some bushes.

"What?? Let's go!" Ino shouted, bolting to hide in some bushes and watch the fight unfold. The guy who was wrapped up in bandages had just flown backwards after the green boy had punched him in the stomach.

--

"Where's Lee?" asked Ten-Ten. "He's usually very punctual with things like this."

"I told him not to. But he was destined to help that girl." Neji said, sighing. "Come on. Let's go get him."

--

Lee was astounded. "_Has my genjutsu failed me? No matter! I must defend Sakura-chan!" _Lee got up and remembered when he had learned this forbidden attack.

_Lee had been jumping around in excitement, proving himself to be the only genin on their team to master the technique. Gai-sensei had to punch him to get him to pay attention. After that, he was at attention during the remainder of Gai's lesson._

_ "Lee, this technique must only be used under the direst of circumstances." Gai explained to Lee. "This attack puts a lot of strain on muscle fibers; it's essentially a suicide attack. Normally, the brain allows us to use about 20% of our full potential. This protects the muscles from tearing themselves apart. This technique destroys the barriers used to hold back our muscle power with chakra, allowing you to use close to your full potential. There is only one condition you are allowed to use this technique under."_

"Gai-sensei… I'm going to use this technique without reserve; because right now is a time to protect a precious person!" He undid the bandages on his arm a little, and made a seal to focus his chakra. Lee was suddenly gone.

"Genjutsu again! Don't make me-" Dosu was cut off by Lee reappearing and kicking him in the chin, sending him flying into the air. Lee was underneath him in a moment, wrapping him up with Lee's bandages.

"This is far from over." Lee started to spin faster and faster, becoming a blur or green and white. **"Initial lotus!!" **The two were a massive drill, headed straight for the ground.

Dosu slammed head first into the ground, and Lee jumped a moment before it connected.

_ "What is this sensation…?" _Lee slid back a few feet, ready to attack again.

Zaku had his hands in the ground, relieved he had made it in time.

Dosu stood up, arm extended to the side. "What a terrifying technique. This much damage even on this spongy dirt… Now it's my turn."

"_Damn! This is bad. My body still hasn't recovered!" _Lee dodged backwards to avoid Dosu's punch, and it missed him by inches.

"If your moves are fast," Dosu said, taunting Lee, "Then ours are at the speed of sound. I'll show you a wall no amount of hard work can surpase."

Lee fell back, his vision distorted. He lurched forward and puked onto the forest floor. His right ear was bleeding as well.

"There's a trick to my attack that makes it extremely difficult to dodge. Tell me, do you know what sound actually is?"

"Vibration…" Sakura said, trying to piece together his attack.

"Exactly. Hearing sounds means that your eardrum is catching the shaking of the air. And the human eardrum will break with sounds exceeding 150 MHz, and deeper in the ear is the inner membrane. When this is damaged, you lose your balance. You won't be able to move your body like you want for a while."

Zaku drew his hands from the ground. "Lame old taijutsu won't work on us. In all fairness, you were doing well. You forced me to use my jutsu, so of course you lost. I can freely control air pressure, and I have even enough power to destroy a rock. Blasting air into the earth to create a cushion is nothing." Zaku taunted.

"And now, you." Dosu redirected himself towards Sakura, standing set as stone.

"_It's not like he can hurt me, anyway. But Sasuke-kun and Naruto…"_ Sakura took a basic stance, kunai in hand. "_I… I must protect them!" _

"Brave, aren't we. Oh well. Time to die." Dosu lunged, fist ready to deliver a devastating blow to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!!" Lee forced himself to jump in the way, and deliver another kick to Dosu. A shot of pain coursed through his body, blurring his vision and debilitating his movement.

"So the attack is affecting you, then?" Dosu caught Lee's kick and pushed it aside. "You scared me there for a moment. But it seems you've lost the ability to do taijutsu in rapid succession." Dosu threw a hook swing and Lee blocked, causing him immense pain. "This device on my arm multiplies small sounds and amplifies them. You could say it's a speaker. Then I use my chakra to direct the sounds, so they always attack my prey." Dosu demonstrated his point by focusing his attack into Lee's inner ear yet again, wreaking havoc on it.

Lee let out a horrific scream, and Sakura yelled his name. Lee fell to the ground, and Dosu held his arm over his head menacingly. "Now, let's finish this."

"I won't let you!!" Sakura threw her kunai and drew several shuriken, launching them as fast as she could. Dosu simply stood there.

--

"They're in serious trouble! We should run while we can!" Ino whispered to Shikamaru.

"It looks like Sasuke and Naruto are just knocked out. That Lee has also been beaten, and Sakura's all alone. What will you do, Ino?" Shikamaru said, ready to run or think up a plan in a moment's notice.

"Me??" Ino whispered back, "Why me?"

"Well Sakura's in trouble. Didn't you guys used to be friends?"

_"Oh yeah… we started to fight over Sasuke-kun."_ Ino thought, remembering times of happiness with Sakura. "But what can WE do? We can't just jump out!"

--

Sakura reared back her arm and let the last shuriken fly. Zaku appeared and blasted them back at her. She blocked with her arms, knowing they wouldn't hurt.

She was shocked when they did, and even more so when the female on the sound team was behind her, holding her by her hair. _"Why… why does it hurt??" _She cried out in pain.

"Pft. Are you serious with this hair? If you have time to fix it up all pretty, you have time to train. Are you trying to be a sexy ninja?" She gave a hard tug on Sakura's hair. "Zaku, kill the Uchiha in front of this boy chaser. Teach her a lesson."

"_No! They can't!"_

"My pleasure, Kin."

"_I'm STILL the one who needs protecting! Not anymore! This time… I'll protect you guys!"_

"So, let's do this." Zaku said, evil grin plastered on his face. He started to walk over to Sasuke and Naruto.

Sakura drew out another kunai and Kin threatened it wouldn't work against her. "What are you talking about?" Asked Sakura, devilish grin on her face.

She sliced her hair, freeing herself from Kin's tight grasp. _"I always… thought of myself as a proud ninja. I always said I liked Sasuke-kun, and lectured Naruto as if he was better than me; all I did was watch them from behind. Then, I got this ability. I'm practically an immortal, and I still watched them sacrifice themselves to save me. No more! This time, you'll all watch MY back!!"_

"Kin! Kill her!" Zaku yelled, preparing himself to do the same if Kin failed.

Kin drew sebon and rammed Sakura from behind with her shoulder.

Sakura had replaced herself with a log, however, and escaped.

"_Such a basic jutsu… she's so weak."_ Zaku raised his arms and revealed a small hole in the center of each of his palms. _"She's coming at me." _Zaku turned and yelled for Kin to get out of the way. "**Air Slicing Blast!!" **

Wind erupted from Zaku's hands, and Sakura preformed another replacement. "You're not fooling anyone, little girl!!" He looked up, and Sakura was there, performing another seal. "How many times do I have to tell you it's useless??" Zaku threw another batch of kunai and shuriken, and started looking around for the next Sakura to pop up.

"Where are you now, girl?" He noticed Sakura was still flying at him, kunai in hand. She had taken every weapon that was thrown at her, and blood was seeping through her skin rapidly. _"What the? This time, it's not replacement!!"_

Sakura tried to stab at his neck, but he took it in his arm. He cried out in pain as she bit his uninjured arm. "Let go of me you bitch!!" Zaku flailed his arm wildly, trying to shake her off. She wouldn't relent, and Zaku started beating her head with his fist.

Blood was pouring off her face from random cuts scattered across her face. Most of it was hers, but some of Zaku's blood had clotted her hair and landed on her own face. She was pale from blood loss, with deep red blood leaving streaks across her face. Her hair was bloody and clotted, and thrown across her face.

She looked terrifying.

"_I… I HAVE TO PROTECT THEM!!" _Sakura was eventually thrown off, landing a few feet

Zaku raised his hands to her, ready to blast her away. "You brat!!"

Suddenly, Team 10 was in front of Sakura, ready to protect her.

"Pft. More weirdoes have arrived." Zaku said.

"You're not the only one who gets to look good in front of Sasuke-kun, Sakura!" Ino yelled behind her, not taking her eyes off of the enemy.

"Shikamaru, let go of my scarf!! These guys are WAY too strong for us!!" Choji yelled at his black-haired friend.

"Yeah right! It may suck, but if Ino is fighting, we men have to too!" Shikamaru held firm on Choji's scarf.

"Sorry to get you guys involved. We're a team though, so this is necessary." Ino apologized. "We'll get through this somehow."

Zaku chuckled. "You can leave if you want, fatty."

Choji froze; a look of determination written across his brow. "What did he say?" His voice was suddenly hard and cold. "I didn't hear him."

Shikamaru quickly let go of Choji's scarf. _"That word is taboo for Choji. Say it twice and…"_

"I said 'If you want to, you can run away FATASS!'" Zaku raised his hand yet again to Choji, and yelled **"Air Slicing Blast!!"**

Choji held his ground, and the chakra-enhanced air like a breeze to him.

"What? Die!!" Zaku blasted again and again, but he only ruffled Choji's hair and scarf. He looked at his hands, disheveled. He fired at a tree to the side and left a huge gash in the trunk. "What are you??"

While this was happening, Ino told Sakura to take it easy and take care of Sasuke and Sakura. "Alright!" Ino yelled, facing her opponents. "Time for Team Ino full power!"

Shikamaru cracked his neck. "It's necessary, I suppose."

"Choji! Go!" Ino commanded, and Choji nodded. He took a few steps forward, made a seal, and his entire body became like a ball. He started to roll in place, gaining speed and traction. **"Meat Tank!!"**

Choji rolled and bounced toward Zaku, whose Air Slicing Blast had no affect on the spinning Akimichi. He neared his target with enough speed and weight to crush him in seconds.

Dosu lunged to attack the ball of meat, but was stopped by Shikamaru's shadow bursting forth and attaching itself to Dosu's. He was stopped in his tracks. Zaku had leapt away at the last minute, but had sustained some minor damage.

"Dosu, what are you doing??" Kin screamed, appalled by her team mate's lack of action.

"Ino! Now there's just the girl! Take care of her!"

Choji was dizzy from all his spinning, and had returned to normal size.

Ino made a seal and her body went limp. Shikamaru caught her and Dosu copied the action.

Kin gave a look of shock, and then passed out on the ground. "It's over now!" Kin yelled. "If you guys move an inch, I'll kill this girl! When I can't sense your chakra anymore, I'll let her go."

Zaku and Dosu shared a smirk, and Zaku lifted a single hand to Kin. "No." He blasted Kin into the air, sending her flailing into a tree.

"_These guys…" _Ino thought inside of Kin's mind, "_They would sacrifice a comrade for no reason?"_

Zaku taunted them, "You guys misunderstand."

"Our goal isn't to complete the exam, nor keep these scrolls away from you. Our goal is to kill Sasuke Uchiha." Shikamaru's shadow receded back into its original form."It seems like 5 minutes is the limit for this jutsu. And that girl can send her spirit into another person's. From the look of that bleeding, it seems that killing Kin will kill her as well." Dosu gave a grunt of boredom. "I can't take any more of this."

He readied another attack, designed to decimate the rest of his opponents when a voice above them said "Some minor sound ninja bullying these second class ninja and declaring victory? Anyway, you made a mistake here." Neji Hyuuga stood above them, arms crossed and relaxed. " You see, that freak in front of you is on our team and…" The veins around his eyes bulged as if to accentuate his point, "You're going to pay for that.

"If you're going to go any further, I'm going to go all out."

Dosu scoffed. "If you're so strong, then come down here and face us!"

_"This chakra…"_ Neji closed his eyes and sighed. "No. It seems that won't be necessary. It seems one of them is waking up."

And indeed, Sasuke was standing on his own, dark purple chakra swirling around him like a hurricane. His hair was tossed about, and dark flames seemed to race across his skin. "Sakura, who did that to you?"

Zaku laughed, "We did it!"

Sasuke glared at him with sharingan flaring, dark chakra swirling around him, and black flames chasing around his skin. _**"Good. Now I can kill you."**_


	9. Monsters

Monsters

Anko and a squad of ANBU kneeled at the feet of the Hokage, relaying the news of the dead bodies and of Orochimaru.

"Hokage-sama, Orochimaru has invaded the Chunin Exams. I tried to fight him, but he got away." Anko said, not meeting the old man in the eyes.

"I see. Did he mention he motives for coming here?" The Hokage had his fingers laced together, smoke slowly rising from his pipe.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. He said he has given the Uchiha kid a Curse Seal, and he plans of recruiting him to his village."

"I see." The Hokage fell silent, contemplating the current situation. After several moments, he spoke again. "We must end the exams then. We cannot risk the lives of our ninja for such a meaningless cause."

Anko raised her head, "Orochimaru specifically said don't end the exams. He said he "If you try to end my enjoyment, the Leaf Village is finished."

"Did he? That is most troubling indeed." The old man stroked his white goatee in thought. "I will think on this later. Now, tell me about the dead bodies you found at the graveyard."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Anko resisted a tiny smile at the poorly worded command. "We found three bodies at the graveyard. They were of a grass genin team, and their faces had been removed. One of the three had the top of his skull and brain removed."

The Hokage's face betrayed the smallest amount of surprise. "Very well. You are all dismissed." The five stood and the Kage spoke again. "Anko Mitarashi, would you mind staying for just a moment?"

The ANBU vanished, and Anko stood alone facing the powerful old man.

"You said that one of the three grass genin had his brain removed?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama." She wondered why the Hokage had asked her to stay behind. "_Certainly any of the other ANBU could have told him this information." _

"Sylar-san, you said that you yourself have used this method, correct?" The Hokage looked to his left and Sylar walked up in his new attire.

He was wearing a black flowing shirt with a small V-cut and loose fitting sleeves that reached a little past his wrists. His pants were made of simple black cloth, and he wore black sandals.

Anko blushed slightly at his appearance. "_He's not that bad looking. Maybe I could seduce him for a night or two…" _She gave herself an evil grin.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if anyone here could use it. Of all the abilities I've seen in this world, none of them involve understanding OR telekinesis. Could you have the bodies brought here so I could look at them?"

The Hokage nodded and sent for the bodies. "While we wait," Hiruzen spoke, "Sylar, would you mind taking a look at Miss Mitarashi's neck?"

Sylar arched an eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"

The old man chuckled. "Well, she has a mark on her and-"

"Hokage-sama!! Why are you telling this person about my Curse Seal??" Anko stood and shouted at her leader. She realized her mistake and resumed to kneel, mumbling an apology.

Sylar looked at her with curiosity. "Why would it matter if I knew about this mark of yours?" He crossed his arms and his sleeves made a quiet _whoosh_ing noise.

Anko gritted her teeth. Seeing her discomfort, Sarutobi cleared his throat. Sylar didn't divert his gaze.

"Anko was the student of my student. He was incredibly intelligent and powerful, but he became corrupted. He always wanted to know things; sometimes things that were supposed to remain unknown. He eventually left the village after he was rejected for the role of Hokage."

"So?" Sylar could guess where this was going, but they needed to burn some time.

"The village believes her to be a traitor, and not many trust her."

"That seems to be a running theme in Konoha, doesn't it?" Sylar walked over and stood in front of her. "People will throw their hate and their problems at someone. You just happened to get picked. All you have to do is suck it up and remember how stupid they are."

Anko glared at the man making so little of her entire existence. "So what you're saying," She said, killing intent seeping out of her slowly, "is that I should just suck up the fact that EVERYONE hates me for something I can't even control??"

"Yes." The answer was short and to the point.

Anko moved quickly and stood behind Sylar, kunai already drawn and pressed to his neck. "What gives you the right to tell me how to live my life?" Her voice was icy cold now.

"Calm down, it was just a suggestion." Sylar said in a mocking tone. "I don't think your Hokage would be too pleased with you right now."

"This is worth it." Anko made a shallow cut on his neck, just enough to draw a bead of blood. "Yummy."

The kunai suddenly flew out of her hand, embedding itself into the granite walls of the Hokage's office. "What the hell was that??" Anko suddenly was thrust beside her kunai by an invisible force. "What are you doing??"

Sylar stood facing her, his hand extended and a small smirk evident on his face. "Incapacitating you. I want to see this "Curse Mark." He kept his hand extended and walked over to her.

Anko struggled in vain to break free. _"What is he doing to me??"_ Eventually Sylar got close enough to touch her, and she subconsciously growled at him.

"Feisty, aren't you?" Sylar pulled her tan trench coat over her shoulder exposing her creamy skin, marred by three black comma-like marks on her neck. Sylar looked taken aback. "Why would anyone have this on them?"

Anko snarled. "It wasn't a choice, you idiot."

Sylar ignored her and directed his comments to the Hokage. "This seal, when activated with chakra, is designed to release an enzyme into the bloodstream."

"I see." The old man tapped his fingers together for a moment. "Can you derive anything else?"

"No. I'd need a more… active demonstration. Considering her apparent dislike of having this mark, I would have to say that's out of the question."

"Damn straight!!" Anko was practically foaming at the mouth. "Now get me DOWN!!"

Sylar smirked and turned back towards the old Kage. Anko slid to the ground, snarled, and leapt at Sylar.

He turned just in time to catch her in mid-air. "I could kill you if I wanted right now, so don't push me." He let her go again, and she was ready to throw everything she had at killing him.

"Anko, that's enough." Sarutobi's voice boomed across the office. "The body is here, anyway."

An ANBU entered the room and laid a scroll of the ground. After a few seals and some chakra displacement, the body appeared on the floor. Sarutobi dismissed the ANBU.

"Sylar, what can you tell me about this body?"

"Well… it's dead."

Anko was caught off guard by his obvious statement. She actually had to suppress a tiny giggle.

"Thank you for that, Sylar. Anything else?" The old man hid his grin behind his crossed fingers.

"The top of the skull is removed, but it's not as clean-cut as if I had done it." Sylar kneeled next to the body and examined it closer. "The brain was taken out by hand, so it's more likely than not whoever did this doesn't have telekinesis."

Anko cleared her throat. "A few things here. One: What do you mean "As clean-cut as if you had done it?"

Sylar scoffed. "I mean exactly what I said. If I had taken off this guy's head, there would be a single straight line going across. Whoever did this did it with a kunai, or something similar. You can tell because it looks like he stopped here," Sylar pointed a jagged point on the skull, "and kept going afterwards."

"But how would you take it off so it didn't do that?"

"I'd point."

"Fine then, be cryptic. The second thing: what's tele-whatever?" Anko crossed her arms awaiting the explanation.

"Telekinesis is the ability to move things with your mind. Like I did with you." To demonstrate his point, he pulled the kunai from the wall. It floated towards him slowly, until he had it in his hand.

Anko said a simple "oh" and looked back to the Hokage. "Where did you get this guy?"

"Well now, that's an interesting story."

"You can tell it over dango then."

--

Sasuke Uchiha had awoken to an odd sight. Sakura was a beaten-up pulp barely keeping on her hands and knees. Ino was collapsed in Shikamaru's arms; the two male sound ninja were poised and ready for battle facing Sasuke. A Hyuuga had his arms crossed above him to the left, along with a girl with brown double-bunned hair and Rock Lee from before.

"Sasuke-kun… your body is-" Sakura gasped out. Her head was light from blood loss, and the world was spinning slowly. When her head hit the ground she was already unconscious.

"Don't worry." Sasuke started; too absorbed in his new-found power to notice she was no longer listening. "I've never felt so much… raw power. I feel great. I finally understand. I'm an avenger! Even if I have to walk into the darkness, I will gain power. No matter what the cost. Now, you, sound idiot… I'm going to enjoy killing you." Sasuke leaked killer intent, adding to his already frightening visage. His black hair fell in front of his blood-red eyes, dark chakra poured from his body. He flexed his hands experimentally, grinning darkly.

"Ino! This is bad! Get out of there or you'll get caught up in this too! Choji, come on! We're hiding!" Shikamaru had hoisted Ino's body over her shoulder, and was already sprinting away. Team Gai left as well, not wanting to waste their energies on something that would take care of itself.

"Stop acting like we have to be afraid of you!!" Zaku aimed both hands at Sasuke, planning to take out him, the pink-haired one and the blonde all in one massive attack. **"Extreme Air Slicing Blast!!"**

Everything was torn to shreds. The ground was ripped up, branches cleaved in two, and Team 7 was nowhere in sight. "Heh." Zaku said with a smirk. "I blew him away." Shikamaru and company had bolted out of the area, leaving Team 7 alone with the Sound Team.

"Blew who away?" A voice behind Zaku made his spine shrink.

Sasuke drew back his hand and knocked Zaku away in an instant. Before Zaku even hit the ground, Sasuke had gone through the seals and shot multiple fireballs from his mouth. **"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!!" **

Zaku threw up his arms in defense and squeezed his eyes shut. The fire burned his arms and singed his hair. Zaku felt a powerful kick to his back and braced himself to fly forward yet again. His arms were caught, however, and he realized how desperate his situation was.

Sasuke had his arms.

--

Anko and Sylar had left the Hokage to ponder the events of the Chunin Exam in favor of a more pleasant story-telling spot… that just so happened to be Anko's favorite dango shop. She ordered a few sticks, and settled in to hear Sylar's tale.

"Before I was brought here," Sylar started explaining to Anko, "there were no ninja. No jutsu, no chakra; only blood. Our weapons could destroy entire cities with one shot. Eventually, I got a knock on the door from Dr. Chandra Suresh. He told me he suspected I was special. Being special appealed to me immensely. I was the son of a watchmaker, turned watchmaker. It was horribly mundane." Sylar paused to see Anko fidgeting slightly. "Do you have a question or can you just not sit still?"

Anko scoffed. "I wouldn't fidget if you could tell stories better."

Sylar looked at her like he wanted to rip open her skull. This, he realized, wasn't a bad idea. He suppressed a smirk. "Long story short, I killed a guy, took his ability, repeat. Eventually I had so many powers I couldn't remember them all. So I ripped 'Enhanced Memory' out of somebody's head. Well, Hiro Nakamura, a guy who could control time and space, didn't like that. I apparently killed his girlfriend. So he said to me, in his funny little accent, "Brain-man! (That's what he called me because I took out people's brains) I will not allow you to hurt any more innocent people!" So he teleported me to the moon."

Anko's eyes widened. "The MOON? You mean that big white thing in the sky, right??"

Sylar nodded. "He didn't know I had ripped out "Lung Adaption" and some ability that keeps my body temperature perfect. So I flew back to him and tried to kill him." Sylar shot a look at Anko as she vacuumed up dumpling after dumpling.

She gave a sheepish grin and apologized. "You would slurp these down too if you ever tasted one!"

"Sure I would. As I was saying, anyone who could do that to me needed to die. Frankly, I'm not sure why he didn't let me kill her and go back in time with her brain. He could have just given it to me and she would've been ok. I suppose he just wasn't thinking clearly. I mean, I had killed her about four times by now…

"Anyway, after teleporting me into the sun and Jupiter," Anko's jaw dropped at these, "he said "Enough, brain-man! Hiro punched me in the face, and I wound up here. After I tried to fly away again, I realized that I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. No alchemy, no shape shifting, no electricity… nothing. Well, I still had telekinesis-"

"Moving-things-with-your-mind-thing?" Anko asked, still munching on dango.

"Yes. Stop interrupting."

Anko mumbled an apology, and Sylar continued. "Like I said, I still had telekinesis, and my original ability. I was dumped on what looked like a road. I just picked a direction and started walking. I wound up here."

"Interesting." Anko said, down to her last dango stick. "Are you going to try to go back?"

"I haven't decided. I like not having to understand anything, though."

Anko gave a short nod. Then, as quickly as she could, she threw the last dango, stick and all, at Sylar's still-open mouth.

While Sylar didn't have slow reflexes, it was still a highly-trained ninja throwing a sharp stick at his face. Half of the stick disappeared into his mouth before he stopped it. The dango, however, kept its momentum, and hit Sylar right in the face.

Anko giggled.

"Are you done now?" Sylar asked as he wiped his face with his sleeve. "You act like a teenager."

"Oh lighten up Mr. Serial Killer!"

Sylar stared at her blankly for a few seconds. He allowed himself a small grin when a bowl of red bean soup turned itself over above her head.

--

Sakura's wounds had healed themselves, oddly enough, and she was slowly regaining consciousness. She awoke to a power-possessed Sasuke Uchiha, basking in evil chakra. He was _enjoying_ torturing the sound genin. This Sasuke was simply evil.

"You're very proud of these arms, aren't you?" Sasuke had his foot dug into Zaku's back, his arms pulled behind him. "I should just snap them off for what you've done to my team." He let out a maniacal laugh as he applied more pressure to Zaku's back.

Sakura's eyes welled up with tears.

A sickly _crack_ rang through the air, making everyone who _wasn't _possessed by evil chakra's stomach turn.

"You're the only one left." Sasuke turned towards Dosu, a nefarious smile plastered on his face. He set his feet slightly wider than shoulder-length apart, and put two fingers on his forehead. Menacing blood-red lightning crackled from his fingers. "I hope you're more fun to kill than him."

Dosu was frozen to the spot. He simply could not move from this sickly evil chakra.

"_This… this isn't Sasuke-kun!!" _Sakura ran as fast as she could to Sasuke, praying he wouldn't cross a line he could never come back from. "Stop!!"

Sasuke's eyes swiveled to Sakura running at him, and he laughed his dark laugh again. "You think you can stop me!?!" He spun and thrust his hand at her. **"Akarai Cannon!!!" **

Sakura's eyes widened in shock as the black chakra pierced her sternum. Her muscles seized and locked, the electricity flowing through her. "_It hurts so much!! How can I feel this much pain??"_ Her body bucked uncontrollably; she bit her tongue nearly in half. When the attack finally subsided, the hole in her chest was smoldering.

Sasuke panted for a moment, then turned back to Dosu. His voice was laced with venom. **"Now… where were we?"**

--

Team 10 was speeding away from the scene that had unfolded before them. _"Sasuke can take care of all of them._" Shikamaru rationalized. "_We can't do anything that he can't."_

"We need to go back." Shikamaru looked shocked at his teammate.

"Ino, are you crazy?? There's no way we can help!"

Ino steeled her face, anticipating this from him. "If it were us in trouble, Forehead would help us. I can't have her thinking she's better than me."

They stopped on a bough, and Shikamaru turned back towards Team 7. "Ino… damn it. This is so troublesome. You know we'll go where you tell us. Fine! Let's go."

"Good. Choji, next time…" Ino started to command the team's actions, and Shikamaru began thinking.

_"Ino, I know you won't admit it, but you're doing this for Sakura. As much as you hate it, she's still your friend. If something were to happen to her because you were afraid of fighting, you would never live it down." _Shikamaru nodded to himself as if to confirm his own theory. "_You're a good friend._"

Team 10 arrived just in time to see Sasuke fire an odd beam through Sakura, throwing her into convulsions.

"What is Sasuke doing??" Shikamaru yelled. "He just killed her!!"

Ino was just in shock. _"Sasuke... Sasuke-kun… What did you do??" _Ino felt her eyes burning. "Come on! We have to go help her!!"

They jumped down to Sakura's limp body. She wasn't even bleeding. Sasuke's attack had burned her flesh before it could attempt to bleed.

"Sasuke-kun!! Ino screamed, tears burning her eyes. "What have you done???" Her voice shrieked across the clearing, echoing faintly before fading.

Sasuke looked back, seeing Sakura on the ground. "She's fine. She'll just heal and forget about this whole thing."

"_Heal? What is he talking about?"_ Ino's mind was going a hundred miles an hour, trying to take in all that had occurred. "What do you mean she'll heal?? She's dead, Sasuke-kun!!"

Sasuke glared at her and was in front of Sakura in an instant. "Watch."

Several seconds passed and Sasuke's eyes widened. _"She… she's not healing?? What's going on? Why did her ability disappear??" _ Guilt flooded Sasuke, and he fell to his knees. _"What has this _thing_ done to me? How… how could I kill her without a second thought? This power… it isn't worth it."_

The black marks receded from Sasuke's body back into the three neat marks on his neck. He collapsed further from the sudden dip in chakra. Anger and adrenaline fueled his final stand at Dosu.

"You are too powerful, Sasuke Uchiha. We were sent here to kill you, but you have proven too much for us." He laid he scroll on the ground, and backed away. "I promise you this… if there is another situation where we will meet in this exam, we will neither run nor hide."

Dosu gathered his teammates and leapt off into the forest.

Sasuke stumbled a bit as he walked back to Sakura's body. Her wounds were still gaping and unhealed. _"What's wrong here?"_

He lowered his hand to her arm and shocked her with his Akarai. Or at least tried.

"What is this?" He asked no one in particular. "Why isn't my ability working?"

"Wait." Ino commanded. "What ability?"

Sasuke should have cared that he was revealing his secrets to potential enemies. He was just too numb. "I can create red lighting, and supercharge other people. Sakura could heal from anything… but she can't now."

Ino continued her interrogation. "When did you get this ability, Sasuke-kun?"

"A few weeks ago. We talked to this guy, Sylar, about them."

Ino made a silent "Oh" and closed her eyes. Sakura's muscle and bone started to meld together, and Sasuke's eyes widened.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked, uncharacteristically dumbfounded.

"I have an ability too. I can suppress other abilities." Ino blushed a little. "I thought our team was the only one who got abilities. I guess a lot more people got them."

Sasuke ignored her. He was fixed on Sakura healing. _"She's going to be okay. Good."_ His demeanor somewhat returned. _"I… what do I do? I need power, to kill _him._ Is all the power in the world worth killing everyone I don't want to kill?"_ He decided to think on it later, perhaps after the life-threatening exam.

--

Heya people! So sorry for the slow update. In all honesty, I didn't start writing it until about Friday. Even then it was about… 1/4th Friday and the rest of it just now. As I write this, it is 2:02 am (11:02 according to FF) on Thursday (Wednesday) morning. I think I could make this chapter an acceptable length if I wasn't so DANG tired. I still have to stay up another 58 minutes so I can post this exactly on Thursday. (It gives me an accurate gauge of who all reads my fics). See that? I made a grammatical error over there and I'm too tired (and hungry) to go back and fix it.

So yeah, another chapter, horribly short, but I feel I've done pretty well here. I threw in some non-cannon stuff (finally) and I think it turned out pretty well. I PROMISE I'll start on the next chapter tomorrow. I think I can set aside an hour everyday to write… anyway! I just realized you probably think I'm writing this long author's note so I can boost the words for this chapter… I promise I'm not. Just feel very… sociable. Dunno why.

As always, review! I don't care about the review COUNT, but FEEDBACK is ESSENTIAL here. More feedback = less-rushed chapters.


	10. Decisions

Hey guys, if it's not Thursday at midnight when I post this, blame my roommate. He stole my charger for my laptop unless I fulfill an ultimatum. I'm going to make his life hell until he gives it back, but this MAY take a while. Anyway, I have more bad news. This chapter probably won't get finished, but I'll post as much of it as I have done, then remove it and re-post the full version.

More powers are revealed, and I THINK we should FINALLY get to the prelims. I hope you enjoy this (short) chapter and review! Review like crazy! If I get… 10 reviews I'll work pretty much non-stop until I finish the next chapter, and I'll post early. So REVIEW!

Ino kept talking about her ability as Sakura slowly healed. Shikamaru and Choji were poking Naruto with a stick, trying to wake him up with as little effort as possible.

Sasuke felt hollow. He had just drilled a hole in Sakura's chest, and didn't feel a thing as it happened. Sure he thought she would heal from it, but the fact still stood.

He had tried to kill her.

"Ino." Sasuke said, his face pale and voice shaking. "You said you could affect memories?"

She nodded.

"I need you to do something for me." His mind was working furiously at this point. "Ino… make her forget."

"What??" Ino's voice echoed across the wrecked clearing. Shikamaru and Choji gave a quick glance to make sure she was okay, and then went back to poking Naruto with a stick.

Sasuke looked at her, barely keeping his composition. "Ino, I need you to make her forget I attacked her. Please."

Ino saw the desperation in his eyes. "I've never done this before though. I could end up-"

"Ino, hurry!" Sasuke whispered. "They'll wake up the dobe soon."

"Fine, Sasuke-kun." Ino said, defeated. "I'll try. I'm not sure how this will work, though."

"Just do it."

Ino nodded one last time and put her hand on Sakura's forehead, over her eyes. Her own eyes were closed in concentration. Sasuke leaned forward in interest. _"Hurry… if she regains consciousness like this, I'm not sure what will happen."_

--

Tenten was supporting Lee while jumping through the trees towards the tower. As he started to stir, she called for a halt and shook him violently. "LEE! WAKE UP!!"

"Huh?" He looked around slowly. "What happened to the sound ninja? Where's Sakura-chan?"

"That Sasuke woke up and drove them off. Lee, why did you break from the plan and act alone?"

Lee looked away blushing. "Sakura-chan was in trouble. As a man…"

Lee continued explaining why it was his duty to protect Sakura and Tenten thought to herself for a moment. _"Lee never would have lost to those guys if he were alone."_

She broke from her thought with a loud "Lee you are such an idiot!!"

He gave a small chuckle and agreed with her.

Neji broke into the conversation, saying they should get to the tower. This made Lee jump up enthusiastically and vowed to get to the tower in less than a day or he would run 500 laps around Konoha.

Tenten sighed and Neji's face remained stoic. "Let's go. He'll run into trouble again if we don't go with him."

Tenten simply nodded.

--

_Time-Reverse, 50 minutes into the Second Exam. Team 8._

"Yahoo!! THIS is what I call survival, right Akamaru!?" Kiba yelled enthusiastically, leaping from tree to tree.

His puppy companion gave an enthusiastic bark.

"Kiba, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's be cautious and not draw the attention of our enemies. That is safest." Shino continued, "Even the smallest insect will-"

"Would you stop acting like the boss here?? I'm team leader!" Kiba called out behind him.

"U-um, Kiba-kun… I think he m-makes a good point…" Hinata said, gliding along her team effortlessly.

The wind shifted suddenly, and Kiba's nose twitched. "Stop!!" He ground his feet into the limb beneath him and threw out his arms to further signal his teammates to halt. "We should be cautious and not draw the enemy's attention, right?" He pointed to his right. "Hinata, can you look about a kilometer that way?"

"Y-yes, I'll look." Hinata concentrated chakra to her eyes, activating her Bloodline. "**Byakugan!**"

Her eyesight propelled through the trees and came to focus on Gaara's back. "Oh. T-there seem to b-be people fighting over there, Kiba-kun."

Kiba grimaced and Shino told him there were two teams. "Let's go check it out!"

Shino raised an eyebrow at him. Kiba explained, "The examiner said we had to bring one heaven and one earth scroll to the tower. She didn't say anything about extras! The more scrolls we get, the less teams we need to worry about later."

Seeing he wasn't moving his other teammates, he added in "If it looks bad, we won't fight." When he leapt off, Hinata followed his lead. A few moments later, Shino joined them.

As they were approaching the fighting teams, Akamaru stopped in his tracks and started shivering. Kiba stopped with him, and soon their team was huddled around the small dog.

"W-what's wrong? Why did we stop?"

"Akamaru can smell out an opponent's chakra, and sense their strength." Kiba explained as the dog climbed into his jacket. "For him to be shaking this much… these guys aren't normal genin."

They spied on the two teams from behind some thick bushes. "That midget is so stupid. What's he thinking, challenging guys like this?" Kiba wondered aloud.

The two teams stood opposite of a small clearing, Gaara taking point on his team, and the largest man on the other. Gaara was half the size as the rain team's leader, and the large man's voice rang out across the clearing. "You'll die."

Gaara said in his emotionless voice, "Enough talk, old man. Let's do this."

Kankuro realized the fight would be pointless if they both had the same scroll. "Gaara, we should get more information first! There are too many unknowns here! Pointless fighting is-"

"It doesn't matter. Those that meet my eyes... all must die."

"Bah! Let's hurry and do this! Here I come!!" The man drew five bamboo umbrellas from holsters on his back, threw them into the air. _"__**Ninja art! Raining Needles!" **_The umbrellas spun quickly, flinging needles out into the air. They all homed in on Gaara, who was still standing in the same spot, unmoved. "My needles are controlled by my chakra, so there is no escape!!"

Dust was flung into the air, and the view of the sand team was obscured. The rain genin smirked. "Too easy."

His eyes widened as Gaara came into view, completely unmoved and untouched. Sand had blocked the needles, protecting him from harm. "Is that it?" Gaara asked.

"Not a single scratch? No way!" The man made a hand seal and tried again, flinging more needles at an opening in the sand armor. They were blocked, without Gaara moving as much as an inch.

"A wall… of sand?"

"Yes," Said Kankuro, explaining to the unfortunate man. "A sand based total defense! The sand is packed into Gaara's gourd with chakra protects Gaara and the surrounding area. It happens automatically, regardless of his will. For some reason, it takes place automatically. Basically, against Gaara, all attacks are useless."

The man was dumbfounded. "That's not possible!! Those needles can pierce steel!"

"You cannot defeat our Gaara."

"Shut up!!" The man charged at Gaara, only to have his feet trapped by the sand. He was stuck.

"Raining needles? I'll make it rain blood."

Gaara's sand fell to the ground, and the earth between them was ripped up as numerous small rocks floated into the air.

"What is this??" The man struggled against the sand, only to have it pin his arms as well.

"My existence." Garra shut his eyes and drew in a deep breath. The rocks dropped off mass until they were thin and sharp. A single stone flew at amazing speeds and pierced the man's shoulder.

He cried out in pain, and rock after rock pierced his body. The blood that flew off him was absorbed by the sand, or flung onto the man's teammates.

His cries died out as his life slipped away. "We-We'll give you our scroll, but please, let us go." The shorter rain ninja stuttered out in fear. He laid his Heaven scroll on the ground.

Gaara said nothing, instead raising his hands and commanding his sand to wrap around both of them. "**Sand Coffin.**"

"Bye bye!" Temari said, smile on her face.

"**Desert Funeral.**" Gaara closed his hands, and their bodies made a wet crunch and their blood splattered the landscape as the sand compressed.

_"Shit! We need to get out of here!" _Kiba yelled in his mind, ready to sprint away. _"If they find us, we're dead!"_

"How lucky. They had a Heaven scroll." Kankuro said when he picked it up. "Ok, let's head for the tower and get this over with."

"**Shut up.**" Gaara's voice took on an edge of hysteria. "**I haven't had enough yet.**"

"Let's stop now, Gaara."

"**Are you afraid?**" Gaara turned his head slightly and he locked eyes with Kankuro. "Coward."

"You may be alright, Gaara, but we're not! This place is too dangerous for me and Temari! And we only need one scroll! Any more is-"

Gaara raised his hand To Kankuro, "Don't tell me what to do, you piece of trash." One of the stone splinters from before rose menacingly in the air.

"Give it a rest, Gaara! Sometimes, you need to listen to your big brother!" Kankuro grabbed Gaara's sash and never broke eye contact with him. "I know that while that rock is in the air, your defense doesn't work. I could kill you right now, you know."

Temari tried to intervene. "Kankuro, let's stop now. Don't say such cold things. Please listen to your sister, alright?"

Gaara pushed away from Kankuro, allowing the stone to drop. He reached out his hand and sand swirled back into his gourd. "Fine."

Kiba let out a massive sigh when the Sand team was out of ear shot. "I don't know who that sand kid is, but he's way too dangerous."

"I agree. Kiba, do you agree we should head towards the tower now as well?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

--

Naruto bolted up quickly and made four shadow clones. "Where is he?? Where'd that grass ninja go??" Then he realized how much his head hurt. "OOWW!!"

Shikamaru snickered and Choji burst out laughing.

"What the hell??"

"It was troublesome, but you were asleep. Choji woke you up."

"How did he do that? Hitting me with a stick??"

Choji threw something into the forest, and then quickly replied, "No."

"What was that??" Naruto asked, pointing angrily.

"…nothing."

Naruto let out a growl and leapt at Choji, being held back barely by Shikamaru. "Would you stop being so troublesome??"

Choji laughed at Naruto and Shikamaru let go of him. "Damn fatties and lazy asses…"

Shikamaru's eyes went wide and he smacked Naruto on the back of the head. "Idiot!"

Choji went crazy, "I'M NOT FAT!!!" He punched Naruto in the face, flinging him into a tree. The tree splintered and let a crater where Naruto landed.

"Ow! What the hell Choji!?" Naruto shook his head and then realized, "_Actually, that didn't hurt that much._"

Choji moved in front of Naruto with a speed not readily associated with his size. "Chubbies rule!!" Choji beat Naruto into the tree, deepening the crater.

"Choji would you stop that!?!" Shikamaru yelled at his plump friend.

Choji huffed off, arms crossed.

Naruto shakily stood out of the crater, looking unscathed. "_Why didn't that hurt?_"

"Naruto? You don't look hurt at all." Shikamaru said.

"I can fix that!!"Choji said, ready to beat him again.

"Nono, that's ok!" Naruto smiled and shook his hands, dismissing the idea. "I just want to know why it doesn't hurt."

"Naruto, there's something coming from your hands." Shikamaru pointed out.

"What?" Naruto flipped his hands over, looking at the palms. They did seem to have a slight glow of white light. "What the hell?"

"Can you glow too?

--

Like I said, this isn't the whole chapter, so I'll write as much as I can and update it.


End file.
